


UnderHell

by IlloustriousTaco



Series: UnderHell [1]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Asexual Character, Canonical Character Death, Crushes, Determination, Family, Family Drama, Feels, Frisk dies, Gen, Gender-Neutral Frisk, Gender-Neutral Pronouns, I Made Myself Cry, In story Exposition, NonCannon Character deah, Platonic Soulmates, Puppy Love, Puzzles, Romantic Soulmates, Slow Build, Slow Burn, Some Humans Suck, Suffering, Taken up to Eleven, Traps, Underfell Derivitive, Underhell, Violence, evil author, this story is a mess
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-13
Updated: 2017-01-08
Packaged: 2018-06-01 23:33:15
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 21
Words: 46,820
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6541267
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IlloustriousTaco/pseuds/IlloustriousTaco
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Mountain is forbidden, no one is allowed to go there without permission from the Great Mages. </p><p>In Frisk's family though, there is a legend, a prophecy: When all is lost run to the Mount Ebbot. </p><p>It seems that even there though, too many things have gone wrong.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Fall

**Author's Note:**

> First and most important note: I was serious about those gender neutral pronouns. Using they, them, their, and themselves didn't feel right and cant even be justified with 'but Chara is tagging along' in this au. The pronouns used are ne, nem, nir, nirs, and nemself. I didn't come up with them, but the reasoning behind using them can be found [here](https://genderneutralpronoun.wordpress.com/)

There was a single shaft of sunlight that seemed to be shining directly on Frisk's eyelids, and ne scrunched nir nose, turning over and trying to pull nir blanket higher to cover nir face. Only there were no blankets, and turning turned out to be a painful turn of events. Frisk's entire right side felt bruised and stiff, and ne groaned in pain, curling in on nemself as every scratch and bruise tried to make itself known over the persistent ache that was over half nir body.

Since laying around feeling sorry for nemself wasn't going to do anything about actually making the pain go away, Frisk carefully moved to a sitting position. Ne didn't recognize where ne was, but that wasn't surprising given why ne had ended up here. From far, very far above, sunlight streamed down and for just a moment, Frisk thought ne saw something in the light so far above. Considering how far away it was, there was no actually seeing that far. Looking back down into the gloom outside the tiny patch of light didn't reveal much detail, but what Frisk could see there wasn't much ne was missing.

It was like a cul-de-sac, or maybe an oubliette. It was definitely a dead end, and Frisk had a feeling that the reason ne hurt so much was that ne had fallen down from that tiny, far away opening that let in sunlight.

There was no possible way ne should have survived that fall, the small and hardy patch of flowers ne had fallen into didn't seem nearly soft enough to save nem from a fall that high. Looking out into the darkness though only revealed one path, and that seemed to be headed down, not up. Frisk could tell ne hadn't come up from that, and that left only the hole from above where the sun shone down.

All things considered, that path was the only way out of the dead end ne was in. The only thing that made Frisk hesitate to go was that it seemed dark, especially compared to this tiny patch of light, and the bright gold flowers growing under nem. The flower patch was just big enough for someone Frisk's size to stretch out on, and Frisk frowned wondering why that thought niggled in nir mind.

The lack of light wasn't any reason not to go forward though, and Frisk pulled nemself painfully to nir feet, whimpering slightly as the bruises and pains up the side of nir body protested. There was no reason to stay though, and there was always the possibility someone would find a way to follow Frisk despite the long drop.

The path in the dark turned into a surprise for Frisk. At the end of the tunnel there was a positively huge doorway with columns and a carved top that seemed to have been clawed and scratched until the original decoration was impossible to make out. Since there was nowhere else to go, Frisk went through, finding another dark, very dark room, with a patch of sunlight lighting up a small rough hewn stone statue. It was very rough, and Frisk giggled at it, taking in the comical little angel. There was a small bowl in front of it, filled with little chocolates. Around the dumpy little angel's neck was a beautiful golden locket, polished bright enough to catch the light.

As far as shrines went, someone was taking very good care of this one, and Frisk smiled, letting nemself sit down in front of it. Ne felt a sense of peace here, contentment that permeated nir mind and seemed to sooth some of the ache in nir body.

It filled nem with a sense of Determination.

“Who the hell are you?”

Frisk started, looking up, and then continuing to do so for quite some time. Frisk was fairly small for nir age, most twelve year olds topped at least four feet and ne was only three and a half. The being standing on the other side of the small shrine now had to be over six feet tall.

From where ne still sat, ne had to look quite a long way up at the stranger.

“I said, who the hell are you?” he demanded again, and Frisk pulled nemself to nir feet, before looking up again. He, and Frisk felt just a little bit certain that the stranger was a he from the way he was dressed and carried himself, was again very tall. He was wearing an outfit that would have been outlandish in Frisk's village, the kind of things that the old grannies would have said were only worn by hooligans and bad boys in the far off cities.

Personally Frisk thought he looked very cool, dark jeans topped with a leather jacket and a black t-shirt that had something rude printed on it, literally the words Something Rude in bright red. Frisk found ne liked the effect a lot, especially the way black looked against the tall creatures white fur. His large hands were tipped in sharp claws, and instead of shoes, large white paws peeked out from under the hem of long, straight legged jeans. His eyes were black where humans had whites, and his irises were a beautiful amethyst color. Under his eyes, the white fur gave way to black stripes, just one under each eye that curled around the bottom of his wolf like face, and slightly curved pale horns curled back above his ears.

The ears were the only thing that spoiled the bad boy image, hanging down like a basset hounds or a floppy eared bunny.

“I'm Frisk,” ne introduced nemself cheerfully, not in the least bit afraid despite the other's scowling demeanor. “Who are you? Are you the one who tends this shrine?”

He seemed startled when Frisk spoke, despite having demanded nir name twice.

“You're human,” he stated, and Frisk nodded, smiling gamely. It only made him frown more, dipping his head as he scowled. “Humans, aren't welcome here.”

Frisk yelped, nir smile dropping as ne felt nir soul get pulled out of nis body. The world around nem faded to monochrome as ne focused on the creature in front of nir.

* * *

For just long enough, he had seen Chara sitting there in front of the little shrine he had dedicated to nir. The little angel he had carved painstakingly, nir locket that was twin to the locket Asriel wore around his own neck, and the bowl of nir favorite kind of chocolate. The human looked just like Chara, the same hair in color and cut, a striped jumper though in different colors, and dark pants.

But Chara had died long ago, the song of nir soul twining with Asriels when he rescued their soul after. Everyone knew that most humans didn't even have souls, not any more, not like the stories the elders used to tell. Not like when Monsters had lived on the surface. Chara had been an anomaly, and the echo of Chara's soul song was just that, an echo awakened by the strange sight in front of him.

Asriel Growled, summoning his magic at the ready as he looked at the smiling human. What kind of psycho would this one be?

But when he demanded the humans name, ne looked at him with a smile and wonder in nir dust gray eyes, another small difference from Chara who had had scarlet eyes, the color of nir own blood. He demanded again, and the wonder didn't fade at all.

Asriel felt sick to his stomach, because this human was a child, but it still had to be dangerous to even make it to the Underground. They never let humans who weren't dangerous past the Barrier. At the very least, there hadn't been a harmless human come to the ruins in the years that Asriel had tended them.

Without a soul, Asriel would have to chip away at the body until it couldn't sustain itself anymore, and he prepared his magic with that in mind, reaching out to get a sense of the empty space soulless humans occupied.

Asriel's breath caught as his magic prompted the Human's soul to emerge, crimson with determination.

Just like Chara's. Asriel felt the control of his magic slipping away, even as he fell to his knees in shock, looking closer at the odd little human, focusing all of his physical senses on nir. Frisk, ne had said nir name was Frisk, not Chara.

That didn't explain the echo of Chara's soul song from within Frisk's soul, even as it retreated once more back to within the living human.

* * *

Frisk had been prepared to run, to dodge and flee the magic ne felt building in the stranger when nir soul had been called. Ne wasn't sure how it was done here, where Monsters lived, but if their soul had been exposed on the surface, Frisk would have run far and hard to preserve nir secret.

There hadn't really been any options on where to run, but Frisk still would have tried to get away at the first opportunity if the stranger hadn't fallen to his knees, tears streaming from his black and purple eyes and making the fur of his face clump together.

“Don't cry, it's ok,” Frisk tried to sound reassuring as ne dug into nir pocket for a pack of tissues. “Here, it's ok.”

“Why? What are you doing?” he growled, flinching away, even as Frisk held out a tissue.

“You're crying... it's for your eyes,” Frisk explained, managing to summon a smile though it felt wobbly on nir face. “I... I don't know why you're crying, but if it's my fault I'm sorry.”

He frowned at nir, and Frisk began to fidget under the weight of his gaze.

“You look just like my dead best friend,” he finally said, an edge to his voice, and the information made Frisk flinch, hunching in on nemself. “and your soul... it's just like Chara's.”

Frisk thought about that for a moment, feeling a deep sadness at the monster's words, and ne felt the urge to apologize, which only made the monster laugh even as he pulled himself back to his feet.

“Is it your choice what the dominant magic of your soul is?” he asked, a harsh note in his voice and Frisk shook nir head quickly. “Then don't bother apologizing. Anyone would think you were weak, apologizing like that.”

“Why... why would that matter?” Frisk asked, the first hints of nervous fear fluttering in nir belly.

“Because in this world it's kill or be killed. Being weak only means you're easy EXP.”


	2. The Ruins: Part One

Frisk whimpered, wrapping nir arms around nemself as the monster watched, his face set in a cold and impassive expression. It wasn't a happy looking expression though, and Frisk could tell that the more ne got upset, the less satisfied the other's expression was.

“Shit,” he muttered, one large hand coming up his forehead for a moment, before he dropped it back down with a sigh. “Listen, don't let it get to you. The rest of the Underground is pretty bad, but the Ruins are a mostly safe area. As long as you don't attack anyone, they should leave you alone well enough.”

“Why?” Frisk asked, looking down as ne's grip on nemselves tightened.

“Because I'm Asriel Dreemurr, and I'm the Keeper of the Ruins. By my will and rules there is peace here,” his voice took on a growl, and Frisk looked back up startled. His eyes gave off a dark glow for a moment, before he sighed again, seeming to release all of the tension he was holding inside. “Come on, I'll show you how navigating the ruins works, and then you'll be on your own. If you're anything like my friend, you'll pick it up easily.”

Frisk nodded, limping forward to follow Asriel, and he frowned as he looked at nem.

“What's wrong?” he demanded and Frisk flinched at that tone of voice. That was a familiar tone of voice from school and church, when someone was angry with questions or was demanding to know what an aberrant child from an old fashioned backwards family was doing.

“I think I landed wrong when I fell,” Frisk explained, looking down even as ne tried to walk straighter and disguise the pain. Adults liked it when kids didn't cause too much fuss and trouble.

“How badly?” That tone was still there, and Frisk shook nir head, looking up and smiling.

“Not bad. I've been hurt worse in the schoolyard,” though that was mostly because Frisk refused to fight back. The punishments for scrapping in the first place were harder but that was always a strap to the back instead of random bruising and cuts. Asriel snorted, sounding faintly amused and looking fairly amused too.

“Do you get into fights often?” he asked, and Frisk shook nir head, looking down again at the disapproving tone in his voice.

“I don't fight. Granther always said that fighting no matter the circumstances is the wrong choice,” ne explained, before laughing a bit. “Granther always said 'mercy until mercy is no longer an option, then run'.”

As Frisk had hoped, Asriel laughed at the silly saying though his voice sounded so sad.

“That's not a bad attitude to have in the ruins, though it would get you killed for sure in the rest of the Underground,” he explained, pausing at an archway identical to the one Frisk had passed to get into this room. The decorations at the top had also been chiseled away, or scratched off. Frisk took a glance at Asriel's hands as he stopped and turned towards nem. The claws looked right for the marks on the stone...

“Most people won't do this, because the art of it has been almost lost,” he said, holding his hands apart as a white light filled them.

“What is it?” Frisk could feel something in the light, but ne wasn't sure what it was, hence asking.

“Healing magic. Almost no one remembers how to do it anymore. I learned it from my mother a very long time ago,” Asriel had a grin on his face as he moved the white light towards Frisk, and ne giggled as the light left a warm tingly feeling. It only took a second, and then Asriel withdrew, standing up again. “There, should be good enough to weather the first puzzle now.”

Frisk giggled again, stretching and feeling only the very dull ache of a mostly healed sprain or bruise. It had hurt a lot more before Asriel healed nem.

“Thank you,” Frisk stated, smiling brighter and feeling better.

“Thank me later, if you make it through the ruins,” Asriel stated, and Frisk followed him through the archway. On the other side, there was a soft light that Frisk couldn't tell where it was coming from but it illuminated things just enough to make navigating easy. At the far end of the room, two stairways led up to another level where another archway stood.

It was beautiful, with a bed of scarlet flowers between the arched stairs adding a splash of bright red. As Frisk followed Asriel up one of the stairways, he started talking.

“The entry to the Ruins are riddled with puzzles and traps, because every monster in the underground is scared of humans. Puzzles and traps keep them from moving as fast, giving weaker monsters a chance to flee to somewhere safe. Humans don't usually appear in the Ruins, and even though we're isolated from the underground, I still have my ways of getting news, so I know that most humans who end up down here don't have souls.”

“But..” Asriel continued on as if Frisk hadn't tried to interrupt, plowing over the human's words.

“Humans don't usually appear in the Ruins, but the monsters who dwell in the ruins are a far more peaceful lot than those of the rest of the underground. Most of them are well aware they wouldn't be able to beat a human in a straight fight. Hence the puzzles and traps. If you can't make it past a puzzle, or die from a trap, well, the monsters will know they're safe. If you do make it through and decide to start fighting, those that keep an eye on the traps will know and spread the word to others to hide. You wont be able to find anyone if they decide to hide from you. If you make it past the traps and decide not to fight... I'm going to be honest, it hasn't happened yet. We'll have to see.”

The room they were in had six flat stones fitted into the floor off to one side and Frisk watched as Asriel moved over to them. On the wall nearby was a switch of some kind, and a doorway. On the other side of the doorway was a plaque that read “The foolish and the brave walk the center path.”

“I'm going to help you with the first puzzle, and that's it. After I do, you're on your own, got it?” Frisk nodded, and Asriel read the plaque out loud, before pointing to the stones. “It's a warning as much for the rest of the underground as for this puzzle. Fools don't last long, and the brave are targets, the better to watch them fall,” despite the steady light that didn't seem to have a source, a shadow passed over Asriel's face as he spoke. It was soon gone though, and the tall monster hooked his hands at his hips, appearing to relax. “Out of curiosity, what does the puzzle say to you with that in mind?”

“That caution and cleverness would serve better?” Frisk answered after thinking about it for a moment, and Asriel nodded approvingly.

“Trigger the outside stones, not the center ones,” he said, pointing to the stones set in the floor, before his hand swung up to point at the lever. “Then pull that. It will open the door.”

Frisk nodded, doing as he said, and sure enough the door opened up. Asriel immediately moved through it, and Frisk hurried after him, reaching out to grab one of his large hands.

He turned to look at nir with a glare, his mouth already starting to open, but Frisk shook nir head and beat him to it.

“Thank you for your help, and taking the time to explain things to me,” ne said, smiling brightly, before letting go of Asriel's hand and waiting patiently.

“You're so weird,” Asriel growled, before turning and stalking off at a fast pace, far too fast for Frisk to follow even if ne wanted to.

Frisk waited a few moments longer before heading forward, filled with determination at the kindness of a stranger.

* * *

The first two rooms were fairly simple, the first one with the admonishment to stay on the path showing which levers were supposed to be pressed to open the way forward, while the second room had no puzzles but there was a beautifully dressed dummy. Frisk didn't know why ne took the time to look around the frilly dressed thing with a patchwork face, but ne had decided to compliment it on it's dress.

Frisk had gotten quite a surprise when the dummy responded with a quiet thanks. Frisk hadn't pressed the issue, but ne had smiled as ne went to the next room. This one had seemed simple at first, until ne reached a bridge covered in spikes too close together to safely walk around, and too sharp to play with. A nearby plaque explained that this room was the mirror of the one before, and Frisk frowned, going back to look at the first half of the room.

The only thing ne could think was that the lighter purple pattern built into the floor was somehow related to the spikes, and Frisk carefully tried nir best to memorize the pattern before heading back to the spikes. If ne was wrong, this was going to be painful and uncomfortable at best, and life threatening at worst, but Frisk had a driving need to keep going forward.

If nothing else, ne needed to prove nemself to Asriel for the trust he had put in nem.

Frisk carefully moved forward towards the spikes, starting where the lighter pattern had started in the darker flooring of the other room. The spikes didn't do anything though, and until Frisk got up the courage to actually step on them it didn't seem they would do anything. But as Frisk's foot came down on them, the spikes retreated, and ne breathed a sigh of relief as ne went on, carefully moving forward. Frisk was almost to the other side of the spike field when ne made a mistake.

Ne was still going carefully and slowly when ne put their foot over the wrong spikes, and even as they pushed down gently, the spikes surged up, needle points shredding the bottom of Frisk's shoe and scraping nir foot as ne quickly drew back with a cry of surprise.

The spikes only went up a few inches, but it was enough to give Frisk the cold sweats. If ne stepped wrong and wasn't fast enough to pull back to safety, ne could fall forward onto those painful spikes and be in for a very bad time indeed. Focusing hard, Frisk did nir best to remember the right path but ne had more holes in nir shoes and feet by the time ne made it to the other end.

Getting through the doorway after that was fairly easy, but Frisk took a few moments to rest while ne could and check nir feet. Frisk's shoes were officially a lost cause, and they had already been through nir older brothers before they had been passed down to Frisk in the first place. As for the bottoms of nir feet, well, thankfully it was a few superficial scrapes and while what was left of nir shoes wouldn't be comfortable to walk on, they would keep nir feet mostly off of the floor and whatever else was scattered around.

Frisk briefly considered soaking nir feet in the water under the bridge, but it was murky and smelled bad, so ne moved on to the next room instead when ne was done resting.

Ne almost backtracked immediately in the face of the next puzzle.

The narrow corridor going forward was alive with moving walls and crushing pillars from above and below seemingly randomly timed down the corridor. Frisk had no idea how ne hadn't heard the din from the other room, but the large, foot thick metal sheets were slamming into each other with vigor and plenty of pressure to crush whatever got between them. The hallway had to have been thirty feet long, and every three feet a set of plates came either from the sides of the corridor to crush into each other, or from above and below.

Frisk whimpered, staring at the obstacles before nir. There did look like there were pauses, enough of them that if ne was careful and fast, ne could make it to the other end of the hallway, but more than half of the crushing surfaces had spikes on them. Not sharp spiny ones like in the room before, but thick, squat mean looking spikes.

It took a while to gather up nir courage, and even longer until Frisk had a sense of the timing ne would need to get through this puzzle, but when ne felt ready, Frisk darted forward into the hallway.

Counting carefully, Frisk made it all of ten feet before being trapped between spiked panels zooming out of the wall too fast to dodge.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I didn't mean to let the Ruins drag on, but well... There are a lot of differences between Undertale and this story. 
> 
> Deleted scene about the crushers: "No! That doesn't make sense! Why is this even here! This fic was badly written and the author needs to be shot!" Then Frisk was a fine red paste smeared on the walls of the mechanism.


	3. Determination

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, I'm not going to lie, I had hoped to be a Lot further through the ruins by chapter three... hell I had hoped to get through them in chapter two. I didn't realize the traps and such would be so different, but it suits the theme of the story and world. 
> 
> Also, I'm not satisfied with the summary of the story, and if anyone has any ideas, please feel free to let me know.

Asriel paused, just out of sight in the next room down, his ears twitching even though it was his soul listening to the hitch in Frisk's soul song. It was a stutter that was just off sync to the song he'd carried within him since Chara died, and he frowned, looking back before shaking his head.

Why had ne smile like that, thanking him even though he'd done practically nothing. For all intents and purposes, the human was still going to get slaughtered by the traps and puzzles of the ruins. Chara hadn't... but Chara had come to the ruins a very, very long time ago now.

Asriel shook the thoughts out of his head, calling a small greeting to the ghost hanging out in the dressed up dummy as he went past. Other monsters would have found it hard to get to this end of the ruins, and most didn't see a point to it, because there was the possibility of a human coming from the small opening to the upper world.

But that was where Chara's body rested, long returned to dust and earth the way Humans did. Their physical bodies seemed so messy, sticking around even when it couldn't support the soul within anymore. Leaking vital life fluids when injured instead of conserving the magic to heal eventually, and rotting when it was no longer inhabited.

The ghost who liked to hang out in the dummy was one of the few who wasn't bothered by the possibility of humans, or the trek through the arduous puzzles to get to this end of the ruins. Asriel had never gotten it to open up enough to tell him it's name, but the ghost seemed to enjoy the small pleasantries Asriel paid it, hello and goodbye and such.

This time, Asriel paused, looking at the frilly dress decorating the dummy with a raised eye before he focused on the creature itself. It looked like the spider colony had been bribed to dress it up again, and there were probably pictures all over the community board in the inhabited part of the ruins showing off the dress.

“There's a human on the way through. This one is different, and has a soul, but I don't know if it's a good soul or not. Please keep an eye on the human, and let me know when they get close to Home,” Asriel didn't have to ask, he could have demanded and either way it amounted to a command, but he didn't want to become so callous and cold as to make his every whim a heavy handed law. If the ghost didn't want to help out, he wasn't going to force the matter.

He waited a moment, wondering if the ghost would agree or not, and then wondering if the ghost was even present today.

“I... I can manage that...” the ghost in the dummy finally said, and Asriel smiled, nodding.

“Thank you.”

* * *

Frisk gasped, shuddering in pain and curling in on nemself as the memory of dull little spikes crushing nem completely. That hadn't happened though, had it? It had to have been a dream, like meeting a real Monster, a very cool one, or falling down a hole in the ground after being chased by the enforcers that had raided Fisk's home.

Frisk looked up and out into the void around nir, and knew it wasn't a dream at all, ne had been crushed by the spiked platforms, and now ne was dead.

“No! I don't want to die!” Frisk shouted, suddenly angry. It bubbled inside of nem, like a wellspring of emotion that had been unleashed, a refusal to accept that this was how it was going to end.

Something inside reached out and there was light, and Frisk was standing in the doorway of the room with the second puzzle.

Looking around, Frisk realized that Asriel had just left nem a moment ago, and ne wondered for a moment if ne had just had a particularly vivid and unpleasant daydream about the upcoming puzzles.

When ne stepped fully into the room and looked around, Frisk knew there was no way it had been a daydream. Frisk had never done that before, though a few particularly vivid feelings of dejavu that ne had remembered only because they were so incredibly clear came to mind. Ne felt certain that ne would have remembered if ne had ever died before, but there was just a little doubt.

Enough that Frisk knew ne didn't want to test this apparently new ability if ne had a choice in the matter.

Frisk hoped with everything in nir heart that it wasn't something ne would need to test out, that had been painful and very unpleasant. Squaring nir shoulders, Frisk moved forward, solving the first puzzle quickly and taking a few moments in the room with the dressed up dummy.

Frisk enjoyed looking at the frilly dress it was wearing for a few moments before complimenting it again, and as before ne heard the little voice say thank you. It was nice, and Frisk smiled gathering up nir courage to move towards that awful puzzle.

The spikes were still hard, but Frisk made it through with slightly less injury this time, which was gratifying, and ne once more took a moment to rest before moving towards the next room. Here ne paused, staring at the clamps with a reflexive shudder of fear as they slammed into each other.

Frisk took nir time, convincing first nir mind and then body that ne could do it before starting to count. Frisk took longer this time to try to memorize the pattern, and then moved as quickly as ne could to make it as far as ne could.

There was no other way forward, and the view of spikes in front of nir made nir freeze, shuddering in fear. It was a fatal mistake, and the flat surface hurt no less than the short stubby spikes.

Frisk screamed, shuddering as ne took a deep breath, before looking out into the void again. Frisk wasn't done yet, and with a growl ne came back to the room where Asriel had left them, and it felt like hours since the monster had left nir here.

If ne was right about what was happening, then it had only been a few minutes, and Frisk needed to keep going, to make it through that puzzle somehow. It was no longer simply a challenge, nothing as simple as a need to get through whether to prove nemself or even see Asriel again although all of that was part of it.

It was sheer bloody minded Determination to get through.

Frisk didn't know what was happening, or why ne kept ending up back where ne began, but each time, Frisk made it further, and got hurt less, at least until the point where ne died. For a while Frisk couldn't stop shaking, no matter how long ne waited for the tremors to stop, but eventually Ne got numb, and was able to hold the fear and pain at bay until the next time ne felt themselves crushed in that trap.

It was a surprise when Ne stepped through the doorway beyond that puzzle, the crushing and pounding finally behind nir.

Even if the puzzles and traps only got harder from here, ne could still feel the determination to get through.

* * *

The next room was simple enough, and the softly glowing light played through two long beds of red flowers lining the path. Frisk looked around, breathing a sigh of relief and moving over to one of the beds of flowers. Considering how many things had tried to kill nir, and some that had succeeded however temporarily, Frisk was going to resist the urge to flop down in the flowers and relax until ne checked them.

A moment later, Frisk was glad of nir caution as brushing the tops of the flowers triggered a set of spikes poking up through the coverage of the flowers. Either the spikes were cleverly placed, or the flowers carefully grown, because when the spikes retreated after a few moments, there wasn't any sign at all that they were there, not even a torn leaf.

With a sigh, Frisk sat down on the path since that seemed to be the only safe place to rest, though a few minutes later it seemed that was a bad idea.

Frisk yelped as nir soul was pulled forward by a surge of magic, and ne turned to find a vuagely frog like creature, with a cloak that opened in the front, and what looked like a face peeking out of it. The creature's head seemed only loosely connected to it's body by magic, and a tiny bit of fire floated above it.

_Final Froggit_. Frisk wasn't sure how ne knew that was the creature's name, or rather type, but ne knew it to be true even as ne turned to face the creature.

With nir soul exposed, Frisk was in danger and ne knew it, but the creature didn't seem to actually want to fight, and Frisk held nemself steady as it stared at nir. It was shaking and trembling, and Frisk wasn't sure how, but ne got a strong feeling that it was scared, terrified even, of nir.

“Are... are you alright? I promise I'm not going to hurt you, or anyone else for that matter,” Frisk stated, a few moments later, when all the creature did was stare at nir. The expression on what seemed to be the Froggit's face remained the same, but the smaller, almost hidden face in it's little cloak looked surprised, and vaguely skeptical.

Frisk grunted in surprise, and just a little bit of pain as a wave of white flies materialized in front of nem and fluttered around nir soul. Most of them didn't touch the soul, but the ones that did caused a stinging pain that made Frisk flinch.

Soon the flies dissipated through, and Frisk smiled, holding empty hands. “It's alright. I'm not going to attack, you don't have to be scared.”

The Final Froggit croaked, a curious tone to it's voice, and Frisk tried to smile encouragingly. It seemed wary as it backed away, and Frisk's soul faded, returning to within nir body. Frisk smiled, bending down to one knee and looking at the Froggit's upper face.

“I'm sorry if I startled you. I've been working on getting through the puzzles without getting hurt and I just wanted to stop and rest a little while,” ne said, trying to appear gentle and non threatening.

The Froggit stared at nir for a moment, before croaking again, and from within it's little cloak at the face that seemed to be in it's belly, a soft, low pitched voice spoke.

“The first doorway is hidden...” the Froggit hopped towards the door Frisk had come from, and then past it to the wall. It looked back at Frisk, as if pondering the wisdom of what it was doing, before it did something mysterious and where the wall had been an ordinary wall there was now an open doorway. Frisk was amazed, and clapped nir hands in delight.

“Wow, that's amazing. I never would have realized there was a door there!”

“Rest inside... but don't tell,” the Froggit said, and when Frisk thanked it, it nodded and hopped away, quickly disappearing around another corner.

Going through the door revealed a small simple room, with cold clear water running against the left and right sides of the room. Unlike the water in previous rooms, it wasn't murky and foul smelling. In the center of the room, surrounded by a border of red flowers only one plant thick, was a short pillar with a bowl of candies atop it. There was a written sign that Frisk couldn't read, the language looking archaic, like something out of a textbook.

The back wall of the room, between the streams at the side of the room, was covered with leafy, soft looking vines, and right in front of that was a bench. Frisk smiled, though ne still checked the flowers and bench for traps before sitting down to rest a short while.

The Froggit's kindness filled nir with Determination.


	4. Knock Knock

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Frisk makes it to Home, and Asriel has a conversation with a mysterious friend.

Frisk followed the pathway to the next room, refreshed and ready to move on in hopes of finding Asriel again, or even meeting new friends. Ne met another monster in the hallway, something that nir instincts said was just a normal Froggit, and after a few moments Frisk was able to convince it that ne didn't want to fight, and it went on it's way after hesitantly leaving a few small coins even though Frisk insisted it didn't need to. It didn't talk like Final Froggit had, but Frisk got the impression of curiosity and gratitude from it.

Frisk really didn't know what to make of everything, being here, the terrifying puzzles, the frightened creatures. Granther had always told stories about the monsters, stories that had been passed down for generations in Frisk's family and went against everything that ne was taught in school about the great war. Frisk's teachers and textbooks all insisted that the monsters had turned feral and slaughtered thousands of people before the Great mages had pushed them back and into the mountain, but Granther always said that it was humans who had started the war.

If more monsters were like the ones that Fisk had met so far, even the prickly Asriel, ne knew that nir family's stories were more likely to be true. Granther also said that kindness begets kindness and that seemed true enough as the monsters that Frisk had met so far responded well to gentle words and a nonthreatening demeanor.

Steeling nemself for the next possibly perilous stage of nir journey, Frisk continued down the hall and around the bend.

* * *

Untold hours later Frisk colapsed against what appeared to be a dead tree, ready to give nir shaking legs a rest. Ne had no idea how many times ne had gone back to that little room with the bench and bowl of candy, but ne had faced dozens of traps dozens of times each since then, and the final one had been purely speed based, though none of them had been nearly as bad as the room with the smashing mechanisms.

There had been rocks that had to be moved onto pressure plates while dodging projectiles from the walls, stinging projectiles that had some kind of venom in them that made Frisk feel sluggish and slow, and when ne slowed ne got hit by more of the stinging darts. Ne discovered that if ne fell unconscious in that room, ne found nemself in the void once more before coming back to the bench room. After that it was a room with a floor that would drop out from underneath Frisk if ne stepped wrong and drop nir into a pit full of long sharp stakes that impaled nir body, but didn't always kill quickly.

That had been an agonizingly long time making it through that room, and the next one had been moving more large rocks onto pressure plates, this time having to be wary of foot long sharp spikes on some kind of timer that would pop up from the floor in patterns. When one of the rocks protested, Frisk had found nemself asking politely for it to move onto the pressure plate long enough for nir to get past the barrier into the next room. There had been a puzzle where ne needed to press all the switches in certain orders to open the way to the next room, and pressing them in the wrong order dropped nem into more pits with spikes.

There had been another room where ne had to intentionally jump down one of the pit traps to trigger the lever that would open the next barrier. Frisk's ankle still hurt from that one, because it had been a long fall and no matter how ne landed, ne always got hurt. The ankle had been the least of it, literally as Frisk had done that particular jump of faith half a dozen times and gotten injured worse on earlier jumps.

Through it all, Frisk had also been meeting the monsters that lived in the ruins. Ne had met more Froggits, tiny nervous fliers called Whimsums, aggressive floating round monsters whose faces changed known as Astigmatisms, and their slightly less aggressive relatives called Looxes. There had even been an odd plant that looked like a very large turnip that had insisted on feeding Frisk green vegetables it conjured in front of nir, and the trick had been getting the green ones without being injured by the white ones summoned at the same time.

Frisk had held tight to nir kindness and patience the entire time, even when the monster's reflexive and nervous attacks had hit home and injured nir. Ne hadn't died to any of the monsters, and when Frisk smiled at them when they relaxed, they almost always left a small pile of coins for nir. Again and again, ne tried to tell them that it really wasn't necisary, but none of the monsters had listened, and by now Frisk's pockets were getting heavy with the coins.

Ne had found a use for them, trading thirty of the coins for a small bottle of cider and a doughnut earlier. It had been a surreal experience after jumping over another patch of trapped flowers Frisk had moved to explore upwards when a timid voice stopped nir.

“There's a bake sale ahead...” the voice had stated, and Frisk thought ne saw a white shape fading in and out of view in the corner of nir eye. “Monster food heals..”

“Thank you,” Frisk had said, trying to turn to smile at the shape, but it was gone or invisible faster than ne could catch sight of it. There had been a sign listing prices with instructions to place the proper amount of coins into a spiders web to receive the treats. The treats had been spider themed and tasted very odd indeed, but true to the voice's word, the doughnut had made Frisk feel much better and the cider had quenched nir thirst quite nicely. Ne had made the investment in a few more of the doughnuts for later, and they had come in handy after the next several puzzles.

The monster food didn't seem to do anything for purely physical injuries, but after calming down upset monsters and taking too many hits it made Frisk feel much better to nibble at the donuts.

And now Frisk had made it seemingly all the way. After the confusing rooms with the switches, which had taken Frisk a dozen tries before ne got through without dying, ne had crossed over a line of vines across the path that seemed to have signaled that ne was past the traps. There had been a patch of completely un-trapped flowers in the middle of the path, and the bare tree ne was sitting against hadn't had any traps that Frisk could find either.

In the distance, there was a plain faced house standing against what looked like the solid wall of the back of the cavern but Frisk wasn't quite ready to face whomever might be living there yet.

Still, seeing such a well cared for and sturdy house here, after passing through all the traps and puzzles, filled nem with a sense of Determination.

* * *

Asriel sighed where he sat, staring into space as he listened to the heart song in the ruins. It had stuttered two more times, but it hadn't stopped yet which had surprised Asriel to no end considering it had been almost three hours since he left the human at the other end of the Ruins. As keeper of the Ruins, Asriel had a special magic over the traps and puzzles, and the ability to bypass them at will which came in handy on his daily trip to Chara's grave.

He hadn't bothered to disarm any of them though, and he was conflicted still about whether he should or not. Had it been the right thing to leave Frisk to navigate by nemself, or had it been a needlessly cruel and cowardly move on his part? He hadn't been able to strike Frisk down, even though if he hit nir soul directly he certainly could kill the human. That soul was the thing though, scarlet as the blood that flowed beneath human flesh, the exact same shade as Chara's soul had been all those years ago.

Did human souls come back after they faded? Was that another ability they had that monsters didn't? Even so, that wouldn't make sense in this case at least because Chara's soul had never faded. When Chara was murdered in front of him, nir soul had come to Asriel and saved his life, and it had been with him ever since. It was why he had the power to keep the Ruins independent of the rest of the Underground, and safe.

A second song from the darkness, and Asriel smiled, turning his head and resting his cheek against the door he leaned against. He was expecting it, so the sharp knock on the door didn't surprise him at all, and he responded as was tradition.

“Who's there?”

“Albetya.”

“Albetya who?”

“Albetya know who's here. You always seem to,” the voice from the other side of the door was soothing, with a steady drawl to it that matched the laconic pace of the other monster's soul song.

“It's always you,” Asriel said with a laugh, pressing the back of his hand against the door, and imagining if that door wasn't there he would be able to touch his hand to the voice's. “Have you decided to come live in the Ruins yet?”

This question too was tradition, and earned laughter from the man on the other side. Asriel knew that his pun loving friend would think it was just another long running gag between them, but as always it was a serious offer. He didn't do it nearly as often as he used to when he first sealed off the Ruins from the rest of the Underground, but he still let new monsters in on occasion if they seemed the type to be able to adapt to the mostly peaceful life of the Ruins. A long time ago, Asriel had been willing to open the door for anyone who seemed interested in a fresh start. That had changed when a few of the Monsters he let in had gone on killing sprees, gaining lots of cheap exp at the expense of the peaceful monsters.

Asriel had been swift to put those ones down and return them to dust, but any losses always felt like too many, and he had learned a great deal more about caution when it came to this door and this place.

“Not today, my friend. My brother still needs me,” the voice said, with the same undertone of nerves that jingled like bells up and down the echos of the monster's soul song.

Asriel shrugged, expecting to work at it at least a while longer before he could convince the voice to trust him enough to join him. Perhaps it was even for the best right now.

“There's a human in the Ruins,” Asriel stated, knowing that the other would hear the weariness in his voice. “I left nem to face the puzzles and traps.”

“Not a bad choice if you don't have a lot of magic to spare..” the voice stated cautiously, and Asriel laughed at the probing nature of the question.

“I've got the power, and more to spare, but this human is different. Frisk has a soul,” he wasn't sure why he was telling this virtual stranger everything, but he knew that his confidences would be kept safe. He had never asked if the other heard his own soul song as well, or if it was just a one way bond, and to be honest he was a little afraid to know for sure.

“A human with a soul, huh? I haven't heard of one of those in at least a century,” the voice stated with a whistle. “So what are you planning on doing with it? If you let the traps kill it off, you won't get the soul.”

Asriel laughed again at the other's morbid sense of humor, and shook his head despite knowing that the other wouldn't be able to see.

“I'm not going to kill Frisk, but I can't bring myself to help nem through the Ruins either.”

“Whelp, buddy, sucks to be you,” the other laughed at him, but Asriel didn't mind. “The traps will undoubtedly get it, and then you'll have wasted your chance to get one of the rare and coveted human souls. In fact, we had a human recently on this side too. No soul though, just a killing machine. It made it all the way to the center of Snowdin before the sentries were able to take it out.”

“I'm sorry for your losses,” Asriel stated, feeling like his soul was weighted down with lead. Any deaths were too many deaths in his opinion, but outside the ruins...

“Eh, if they fell they were weak,” the voice sounded sad, and tired. Asriel sighed as he heard notes of pure sadness and despair in the voice's soul song, before a slightly more positive note blended in. “My bro was one of the ones who took it down. He was so cool, you don't even know. My bro is the absolute coolest.”

“So you've said,” Asriel stated with a laugh, before sobering. The air was cooling rapidly, and sure enough the ghost that he had asked to watch the human was fading into view. “My friend, it seems something has come up and I'll need to take care of it. I'll be back in a few hours, one way or another.”

“Alright,” the voice said, and after a pause that sounded hesitant to Asriel's ears went on. “Stay safe, ok?”

“I will,” Asriel vowed, moving away from the door to see what the ghost had to say.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yea, I'll be amused and delighted at every correct guess at who is on the other side of the door... 
> 
> So, the story is still evolving, and new things surprise me bit by bit... so i need to add new tags. As far as I know so far, this is as violent as it's going to get, but still, be wary.


	5. Home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Frisk discovers a burning need to move on despite not really wanting to.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In which there is Exposition. And maybe a kick to the feels O.O

The spikes were too fast, and Frisk couldn't remember any of the patterns. Darts flew from all the walls filled with poison that spread like wild fire, causing pain and slowing movement to a crawl. Spears shot up from the ground, piercing through flesh and muscle and spreading pain from the bone out.

Biting down on a shriek, Frisk jerked, flailing as ne fell off of nir bed. Ne continued to struggle against the blanket that had been tucked in around nem, wondering why ne was shaking so badly or where a bed and blanket had come from for that matter.

Frisk looked around as ne got control of nir body, and recognized that this was definitely not nir room, mostly because ne shared a room with two siblings. None of their toys were littering the floor for Frisk to fall on, and there was only one large bed, instead of the three smaller beds that crowded Frisk's room.

Instead the room was purple and black, like someone had taken cans of paint and liberally splashed the walls in lieu of a proper paint job. A tall wardrobe stood off to one side, a piece of furniture that would have suited someone like Granther perfectly if it hadn't been painted neon purple to stand out against the dark purple and black walls. There was a writing desk against the wall by the door that seemed to have been untouched by the painters mad spree, and the bed frame was the same unpainted oak as the desk.

Stretching, Frisk methodically disentangled nemself as the door opened up and warm golden light spilled in from the hallway, silhouetting someone incredibly tall with horns adding inches to their height.

It took Frisk a few minutes to recognize Asriel even as the monster turned on the light, illuminating the room and revealing odd abstract drawings and paintings that didn't look like any style Frisk had ever seen. It felt like it had been weeks, or even months, since Asriel had left Frisk at the beginning of the Ruins, and Frisk jumped to nir feet in excitement, trying to dart towards the monster for a proper hug.

Of course, that was ruined as ne tripped over the blankets around nir feet, but Asriel moved forward, long arms catching Frisk before ne went crashing to the ground again.

“Geeze, are you ok?” Asriel asked, and Frisk nodded giving the monster the hug ne wanted to. Asriel tolerated it for a moment and Frisk pulled back as ne felt him tense. “Uhm... I found you asleep right outside. I guess getting through the puzzles was pretty tiring so... I bought you inside. There's only one.. functional bed, so I hope you don't mind being in my room.”

Frisk giggled at the monster's nerves, and nodded.

“It's fine, thank you. I didn't plan on falling asleep, I thought I just needed a few minutes to catch my breath,” ne stated, smiling brightly, before frowning and looking down at nir feet. “Did... did you heal me too?”

“Yea,” it was like listening to nir oldest brother admitting to doing something embarrassing, and Asriel's cheeks even flushed, a warm pink glow showing through the soft white fur.

“Thank you so much, I feel a lot better than I did earlier,” Frisk stated, smiling brightly. Of all the monsters ne had met and talked to in the ruins, and ne had ended up taking time to talk to most of them between bouts of sudden death by puzzle, Asriel was nir favorite.

“Good... Since you're awake, I've got some food I'm willing to share if you feel like it,” that blush was back, and Frisk nodded enthusiastically before darting back to pick the blanket up off the floor. It only took a moment to put it back on the bed and straighten the covers, then Frisk followed the monster out into the rest of the house. Expecting more along the lines of the black and purple, Frisk was surprised to see that there was warm colored wooden paneling along all the walls, and perfectly ordinary looking rugs down the center of the hardwood floor of the hallway.

There were two other rooms in the hallway, and Frisk almost asked if Asriel lived with others, but bit back the question at how tense Asriel seemed. There was a little foyer area with a staircase heading down and another door to the side, but Asriel led Frisk to the other doorway, this one opening up into a sitting and dining room. The chair sitting by a cheerful fire was also one that Frisk's Granther would have liked, looking very comfortable and well worn in, and there was a bookshelf next to the fireplace. Along the far wall, a dining table with six chairs around it took place of pride under a light fixture that looked like something out of fancy house magazine. It wasn't a true chandelier, not nearly fancy enough, but it looked electric and the glass around the bulb had floral designs etched into it then painted. It didn't affect the light any, but it gave a cheerful feel to the room.

“Your house is pretty nice,” Frisk stated, smiling as ne looked around.

“Thanks. The only thing I decorated though was my room,” Asriel said with a shrug, motioning for Frisk to sit at the table.

“Does someone else live here then?” Frisk asked as ne sat, nervous about the statement but also very curious. Ne regretted the question pretty quickly because Asriel flinched, before shaking his head as he headed through a doorway into what looked like a kitchen.

“No. Not for a very long time now,” he called, and Frisk heard the metallic sounds of cutlery being gathered as well as the tinks of glass or stoneware. When he came back, he carried two bowls, one steaming and the other with a tray balanced on top of it. “My parents used to live here, but that was a long, long time ago.”

Frisk nodded as Asriel explained, and then helped him set the bowls down at the table. It turned out that the bowls held instant noodles, and the tray held normal crackers. Every cracker had a dalop of ketchup and a drop of mustard on it, and Frisk shuddered at the combination.

“That seems sad,” Frisk stated, trying to imagine living alone without any of nir family around. “All my family lives together, I've got five siblings, and a whole host of cousins. And of course Granther oversees everything,” Frisk smiled fondly, thinking of the cranky old patriarch of nir family.

Asriel didn't say anything, and Frisk sighed, frowning at the plate of crackers in front of nir. Still, with a shrug, ne dug in, eating one of the abominations. It was just as bad as it looked, and ne did the best to keep nir face from showing nir dislike, instead focusing on the bowl of instant noodles. They were watery and salty at the same time.

“If your family was so great, why did you come here?” Asriel finally asked, and Frisk looked up to see him nibbling at his own food.

The question bought back memories of the raid, and Frisk set nir fork down and took a deep breath.

“You said something about humans not having souls, didn't you?” Frisk asked, and when Asriel nodded, ne continued. “All humans are born with souls. Everyone. I don't know all the details, I'm just a kid and wasn't old enough to be taken into the family confidences, but Granther told me that Monsters all have souls too. Monster souls are made of kindness and compassion, but human souls are a lot more complicated. If you have the right kind of magic to tap into it, a human soul can be a big boost of power and magic.”

Asriel nodded, like he understood, and for all Frisk knew he did. Just because none of the other students in school would understand, since the teachers all taught that the only humans who could do magic were the Great Mages, didn't mean that monsters wouldn't. After all, every monster Frisk had met so far seemed to primarily use magic as defense or attack, or maybe that was just the way the expressed themselves to each other. None of their magic seemed to tangle up or hurt each other the way it had hurt Frisk.

“Granther said that the Mages gathered people up and used their souls to boost their magic, and that's why they're still alive, thousands of years after the Barrier was made.”

The metal fork in Asriel's hand snapped in half under the sudden pressure he exerted on it, and for the first time Frisk felt a finger of fear running down nir back at the expression on his face.

“Those bastards are still alive? They should have died and returned to dust with the rest of the warmongers,” the venom in his voice was pure hatred, and Frisk shuddered, hunching in on nemself.

“You... you talk like you've met them...”

“I was there when they killed a Boss Monster and used her soul to tune the Barrier that keeps us trapped,” Asriel snarled, the growl in his voice pure rage.

Frisk thought about it for a moment before shaking nir head. “You lost someone important to you to them, didn't you?”

Asriel slumped, the rage abruptly draining away to weary exhaustion and sorrow.

“Boss monsters have special souls, and there aren't that many of them. There aren’t many of us, so yes, I knew her.”

Even as a child, Frisk prided nemself on being fairly observant, and ne pushed back away from the table, moving over to where Asriel sat slumped. It was without hesitation that Frisk wrapped nir arms around him, hugging tightly.

“You isolated yourself then, didn't you? That's why you live here...”

“Heh... there was more to it than that, but yea. Pretty much. I don't like the world that the Underground has become, so I claimed the Ruins, and I try to make it better here,” Asriel grinned, relaxing in Frisk's grip. “You didn't kill anyone. I had someone watch you. You didn't even fight anyone, and Monsters tend to squabble quite a bit in close quarters like the ruins.”

“It didn't seem right to fight... they were all just so scared of me,” Frisk said, shrugging and finally releasing nir grip on Asriel. “They kept leaving coins for me...”

“Gold. It's a tradition when humans show kindness to share gold. Use it however you need to.” Asriel grinned, and Frisk shook nir head, feeling nir cheeks heat up with a blush.

“That doesn't seem right, giving away gold just for not being mean.”

“Keep it, monsters only give what they want to. Its an old, old tradition, and there is quite a lot of gold in the Underground. Due to the magic nature of how we mine and refine it, whatever you buy people will know how you got it. If you got it from stealing and murdering people, shopkeepers would know.” Asriel stated, and Frisk shook nir head.

“Shopkeepers, like the spiders in the Ruins?” Frisk asked, and Asriel shook his head.

“No, that was just a bake sale. The spider clans are usually raising funds for some purpose or another. On the other side of Home, there's a path that goes down into the Ruins city. It's not as big a city as other places in the Underground, but we all take care of it well enough and it's peaceful here”

Frisk frowned, returning to in front of nir noodles... and the crackers. The noodles had gone soggy, and so had the crackers, so Frisk didn't bother attempting to keep eating. Ne was fairly full anyways.

“It's not peaceful in the rest of the underground?”

“No. Every few years, a human appears. Someone without a soul, and whatever happened to make them that way drove them mad. I believe you if you say that most humans have souls, but I've only seen one other human with a soul. In any case, in order to defend themselves, monsters have taken up fighting. Anyone considered weak is weeded out, leaving the strong to fight the humans,” Asriel looked weary and sad still, and Frisk sighed. “I've heard of other humans with souls in the underground, but they usually come in at the Barrier, and King Asgore is there to capture them, and lay claim to their souls. He's become evil since the Barrier went up.”

“You knew him too, didn't you?”

“Yea... you could say that,” Asriel said, snorting though his voice was filled with venom. “He's my father.”

“He's a Boss Monster too, isn't he?”

“Yes. Stop... stop asking questions about that, please Frisk,” Asriel looked pained at the admission, and Frisk nodded, biting nir lip. “Since we're here, and you're awake, I can give you the tour and show you where you're going to be living now.”

Frisk hesitated, looking down.

“I'm... I'm not sure I can stay here.”

Asriel looked positively thunderous at the idea, but Determination welled up inside of Frisk. There was something ne had to do.

* * *

Frisk sat on a parapet, looking out over the city on the other side of the Ruins, the place where most of the monsters here lived. There were only a few monsters living in the Ruins themselves, and Frisk had met most of them. The rest of the monsters lived down in that little city. It was a hard life, or so it seemed to Frisk, as they all had to work hard each day to get enough supplies to survive, but they still thrived.

Frisk had met a small handful of them already, when Asriel took nir down to the little market for food supplies. The monster had proven to be a surprisingly good cook, despite what he had offered Frisk to eat when ne woke up that first day.

With the right supplies, he made a wide variety of pies, though he only seemed to be putting out that much effort since Frisk was there. Each day Frisk asked how to move on, and each day Asriel dodged the question, dragging Frisk out and about to meet the other monsters. Frisk had made quite a few new friends, and found delight in each of the monsters ne met.

The feeling that staying here was wrong kept growing though. Frisk hadn't realized until ne was talking to Asriel that first day, but there was a deep and urgent need to continue on, to go to the rest of the Underground, and eventually make it to the Barrier.

Frisk had started looking for the way to the rest of the underground on nir own, and each time Asriel caught up to nir and took nir back to Home. Apparently that adorable little house had been the royal palace, way back when Monsters first came to the Underground, and Asriel had grown up there, before whatever had happened that drove a wedge between him and his father.

Frisk had respected Asriel’s wishes and not asked, but ne was getting more and more curious each day, in addition to the urge to move on. Frisk still couldn't figure out what the driving need to move on was, but nir nightmares from nir first day in the ruins, dying again and again at each trap and puzzle were fading and being replaced by a fierce need to keep going.

Then Frisk found the way to the rest of the underground, and everything changed.

Knowing the way forward filled Frisk with Determination.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, Asriel interrupted Frisk's explanation of why nir is in the Underground, and yes, we'll get back to that later }:)


	6. Beyond the Door

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Frisk begins to explore the rest of the Underground.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Quick heads up: I'm going to be starting a new job on Saturday so my posting schedule with this story is going to slow way down. Not that there was a schedule involved, it was just 'hey chapter is done... I'm gonna post it.' that will probably slow down...

The exit turned out to be right under Asriel's house, the stairs heading down leading to a long hallway that ended in a door, this one also with defaced art above the pillars that marked the doorway. It was easier to see Asriel's handiwork there now, as if there was something there that he had hated enough that he had to claw it out of the very stone it was carved into.

After talking with him a bit more, Frisk had a feeling it had to do with his parents.

Frisk had asked Asriel why he didn't want nem going to the rest of the Underground, and Asriel had stated that it was for Frisk's protection. Every time Frisk bought up leaving, Asriel had asked why, and each time Frisk couldn't come up with a good answer. Ne needed to, and it didn't feel rational, but after seeing the void, and feeling nir own determination bring nem back, it was a drive that ne couldn't ignore.

“You really have to go?”

Frisk started at the weary voice behind nir, and turned to look at Asriel. He looked sad, there was a slump to his shoulders and his lips were tight. It was remarkable that for having a face that most would consider strange, he had such human expressions that Frisk had absolutely no problems reading him.

Frisk never had a problem reading the emotions of the monsters ne met.

“Yes,” Frisk stated, turning back to the doorway. “I'm so sorry Asriel, I really can't explain it but I need to keep going.”

“I don't understand. It's safe here, everyone likes you. They're still wary of humans in general, but they really like you,” he said, his voice just a little bitter. “You could be happy here, grow up safe and cared for.”

Frisk thought about it, about spending more time with Asriel, about getting to know the monsters better. Frisk could find work so that ne wouldn't be a drain, and so ne would have something to do during the days while Asriel made his rounds in the Ruins, from the altar and back each day. Monster food didn't go bad, but he replaced the chocolates at the altar every day for his dead friend. The chocolates from the day before went into the candy bowl in the resting room, where anyone could have a piece or two. Frisk had eaten some at Asriel's urging, but Chocolate made nir feel ill, so ne hadn't eaten any more after the day ne had visited the shrine with Asriel.

It was long and tedious to get through the puzzles anyways.

Even so, the thought of staying was more tempting than it ought to have been. Frisk sighed, hanging nir head and letting nir shoulders drop.

“I can't,” ne said, taking a step forward even though ne shook. Was it fear at what ne would find on the other side, or was it regret at needing to leave? Frisk couldn't have said if anyone asked, and ne didn't even know why the urge was driving nem forward.

“You can't leave that fast,” Frisk started as ne felt Asriel's long arms wrap around nir from above and behind, and ne looked up and back at where the much taller monster was leaning over nir. “We've got time for lunch, right?”

Frisk smiled, turning around and giving Asriel a big hug, before shaking nir head.

“It's driving me Asriel. I need to go.”

Asriel sighed, and Frisk felt a warm tear on the back of nir neck, between where nir hair parted and nir sweater started.

“Take lunch for later then,” Asriel said, pulling away, and Frisk looked up to see the weak smile on his face, even as he held out a small backpack towards nir.

“Thank you... you could come with me?” Frisk didn't have much hope that Asriel would come, the monster wasn't ready to go, couldn't seem to move on. He was also very dedicated to keeping the Ruins safe and peaceful, and Frisk understood when he shook his head sadly. Frisk smiled, even though it felt like nir heart was going to break, and ne accepted the backpack before turning to the door once again.

“Goodbye, Frisk,” Asriel stated, and feeling cheeky, Frisk turned nir head back with a grin.

“We'll meet again Asriel, so it's see you later,” with a final wave, Frisk opened the door and went through.

The knowledge that nir friend cared so deeply and was still willing to let Frisk make nir own decision filled nem with Determination.

* * *

The snow on the other side of the door was unexpected, and Frisk looked out with awe at the sprawling forest in front of nem. Ne hadn't expected to find a forest out here, and it felt so different from the ruins that it was startling. The temperature in the ruins had never gotten too cold, and while it had never been particularly warm, it had been steady. Asriel's house had been warm in tone and temperature, but the rest of the Ruins had always been just a little cool.

It was more than a little cool out here, it was downright cold. Frisk had now idea how, but there was a heavy coating of snow on the ground aside from the well worn in path leading away from the door back into the Ruins. Behind Frisk, the door was settled into the largest wall that Frisk had ever seen, stretching so far above and vaguely Frisk wondered how all of this fit under one mountain. If nir memories were correct, there was no way that the mountain could have been that large, and unless Frisk had fallen a lot further than ne thought ne had, Frisk didn't think there was enough room.

Turning back to the way forward, Frisk looked out into the impossibly tall trees stretching ahead, and at the well worn path. Maybe there were others who came and went from the Ruins, but that hadn't been the impression Frisk had got in nir few days staying with Asriel. Frisk vaguely recalled something about Asriel having news of the rest of the underground, and maybe there was a visitor who came to see him?

In any case, it wasn't something that Frisk needed to think about right now, instead ne enjoyed the relief of continuing on in nir journey. Frisk was filled to the brim with determination as ne headed forward, but the pressure inside had finally lessened, and Frisk felt almost light headed from it.

Ne hadn't realized exactly how tense ne had been while ne was looking for a way forward, or how much it felt like a pressure ne could feel inside of nir head and chest.

Frisk felt light as ne moved forward, and even with the cold bite of the air nipping at nir nose, Frisk laughed as ne moved forward. The path was long, and with a laugh, Frisk stepped over a fallen branch in the path that was thicker than nir leg.

Frisk had only gone a few yards further when ne heard a sharp crack, and startled, ne glanced back to see that the branch had been shattered. Frisk bit nir lip, contemplating what had broken the branch right behind nir, and decided that there was no way to know.

In either case, ne was aware of the pressure to go forward building, and Frisk sighed as ne turned forward again. There was only one way to go, so Frisk went.

A few moments later, Frisk glanced back again as ne caught sight of a dark shadow out of the corner of nir eye but ne didn't see anything that could have caused the shadow. Biting nir lip again, Frisk hurried forward, not sure ne wanted to meet anyone out here where ne didn't really have a place to run to or hide.

Frisk had grown a little complacent about the monsters in the Ruins, and even when ne startled them by accident ne knew ne could calm them down or escape until they did calm down. Frisk also had all of the traps and safe places in the Ruins memorized, but out here, there was nowhere to run to, and there wasn't nearly enough underbrush in the forest to hide in. The trees were too tall, and there were no bushes or ground cover aside from the snow.

It only took a few more minutes to reach a bridge over a wide and steep ravine, and Frisk didn't hesitate, stepping forward onto the bridge, only for it to fall out from under nir feet the first step in. With a shriek, Frisk fell.

* * *

The door to the snowy area stood in front of Frisk, and ne glared at it for a moment, before pushing through. It was the first time ne had died since completing the puzzles in the Ruins, but thankfully ne had the determination to keep from having to start over again back there. It would have been a shame to have known the way through without the need to get to know all the monsters ne had befriended in their time staying with Asriel.

This time, walking down the path, Frisk examined the branch on the path, pressing on it and coming to the conclusion that it was too solid to break easily. Frisk looked at it for a moment longer, before looking around and trying to see if there was anything nearby that might have broken it in the last time line. Ne took less time examining the trees for hiding places this time, moving towards the bridge with a single minded determination. The branch snapped behind nir, and Frisk ignored it, resolutely moving forward even as the feeling of being watched intensified.

This time, Frisk paused in front of the bridge, knowing it would do no good to charge forward even if it felt like something unfriendly was watching nem. The trap wasn't visible, and putting nir hand on the first plank of the bridge didn't reveal anything. It stayed steady under the gentle pressure Frisk dared put on it, but remembering the long and frightening fall to the bottom of the ravine kept Frisk from trying to move forward.

Frisk had just stood up and dusted the dirt and snow from nir hands when a deep, serious voice sounded behind nem.

“H e y h u m a n, D o n ' t y o u k n o w h o w t o g r e e t a n e w f r i e n d?” Frisk shuddered, the tone was deadly serious, and Asriel had given nir so many warnings about how different the monsters outside the Ruins were, how they were one and all murderers because of the way they had to survive. “T u r n a r o u n d a n d s h a k e m y h a n d.”

The instructions were pretty concise, and Frisk bit back nerves even as ne scrunched nir eyes closed and turned, extending nir hand.

* * *

The human had died, it had fallen on the first trap of the five that spaced the bridge across the ravine. Sans had watched it fall, had even stood at the edge of the ravine and watched the body go splat at the bottom.

Then Sans was back on the path towards the door in the woods, where he would practice his puns and hang out with the Voice from the Ruins. The Song in the Ruins.

The door opened, and once again, Sans panicked, his magic kicking in to teleport him behind a nearby tree again. Strangers were bad, they usually tried to kill Sans because everyone could tell he was weak and Sans was definitely not down for that plan.

Then the human stepped out of the door again. It was the same human, the same skin color and haircut and style, the same clothing. The familiar claw of terror gripped his spine, and Sans glared at the creature that once more made it's way down the path. Sans had been creepy before intentionally, breaking the branch, and trying to catch the human's eye just long enough to scare it.

And now, since he had done it before, he had to do it again. He had learned that deviating or trying to talk to anyone about going back minutes or hours into the past to do it all over again just made things worse. That had been a painful lesson, but it had been some kind of anomaly, happening only for one day, about a week ago. Sans had the notes to prove that it probably wouldn't happen again.

That didn't change the fact that here he was, half an hour ago, watching the human come out of the Ruins, again. It was different this time though, the human was going faster instead of lingering to look around.

And when it reached the bridge, even under Sans' baleful gaze it didn't keep hurrying across like it had before, it stopped to examine the bridge, like it remembered falling for the first trap step and plummeting to it's death.

Well this was fascinating. It remembered, just like Sans did.

So since it wasn't going to obligingly fall into the same trap twice apparently, it was up to Sans to change things up.

Sans was silent as he teleported behind it, and this was going to be the best joke ever. As seriously as he could, Sans spoke up, and the human turned, so trusting. Hadn't it learned anything in the Ruins? Maybe the crazy voice on the other side of the door really wasn't lying, or maybe the human was just a good actor.

If it had killed Sans' friend, it was in for a bad time. Even if it hadn't, Sans no longer had any compunctions against killing humans, he had seen too many of them murder monsters. Even humans with souls weren't necessarily any good, though he hadn't had a way to explain that to the Voice in the Ruins.

The human's hand came up, and it's eyes were still closed, like it was scared. That was good, it was smart to be scared, fear kept monsters alive. The human wasn't afraid enough though, if it was still offering it's hand to Sans.

There wasn't any Dust, but that didn't mean anything. Like a human's blood, Dust could be washed away.

Clasping the human's hand, Sans let his own poisoned bones do the job. The more EXP the human had, the more damage the poison within Sans would do to it. Because of his nature, exponentially magnified by his own EXP and LOVE, the touch of his bare bones, or a brush from an attack he summoned, was enough to be dangerous even to his own Brother, the only person Sans gave a damn about outside of the Voice in the ruins.

Even as Sans' bare hand clamped down on the Human's fleshy one, and he waited for the poison to kick in, Sans grinned, and then the human was looking up at him in surprise.

The healthy, whole, and completely unharmed human.


	7. Calm the Skeleton

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Sans freaks out.

Frisk looked at the skeleton shaking nir hand with delight. He was cool, incredibly so even if he was wearing an open hoodie and basket ball shorts in this weather. There was nothing else under the hoodie, and Frisk could see the skeletons ribs and spine, and he was wearing fuzzy blue house slippers on his feet.

“Oh my goodness, you are so Cool!” Frisk exclaimed, really not thinking about it, and the skeleton's face lit up with blue magic even as the fluff around the hood of his hoodie suddenly poofed out.

“Uh... Thanks...?” he said, and Frisk giggled. He didn't look exactly like a human skeleton, there was one in the library at school that had been preserved and put on display for science reasons, but he really wasn't that far off. His face was a little wider, and his mouth was full of sharp, shark like teeth. He was also only a little bit taller than Frisk, which meant he was fairly short by human standards. Then again, most of the monsters Frisk had met in the Ruins had been as well so maybe that was normal. He withdrew his hand, and there seemed to be a slight frown on his face as he looked at it, before he reached up to scratch the back of his skull. “If you think Skeleton monsters are cool, you should see my Bro. He's the coolest of them all.”

“Oh wow! Really?” Frisk was almost bouncing in place at the thought. “That's awesome!”

“Yea... Bro is pretty awesome,” he said, and there was the start of a smile on his face, as well as a flicker of clear white magic starting up in his eyes. It was small, but made him look even cooler, and Frisk stared even though ne knew it was true. “So what's a human doing down here in the Underground?”

Frisk's grin slipped, and ne bit nir lip as ne contemplated the best way to answer. Honesty was always the best policy, but there were limits to what could be said and what would be believed.

“I... I fell down a hole on the mountain. I've met some pretty kind monsters so far, but I couldn't stay with them, so here I am,” Frisk explained after a few moments, deciding to keep it as simple as possible.

“Huh... you would have been better off staying where you were,” the skeleton said, and the white light disappeared out of his eyes. Frisk shuddered at the seriousness in his voice, and looked down, bringing nir hands to grip the backpack that Asriel had given nir tight.

“Maybe, but I couldn't. There's something I have to do,” Frisk didn't know how to explain, or what to say to let this skeleton know, and ne felt sad, looking down before shrugging. “I have to keep going, there's something pushing me.”

“Pushing huh? And what are you going to end up doing?” There was a defensive edge to his voice, and Frisk shook nir head again, looking up.

“I don't know.”

“Well, you don't have any EXP or LOVE so... I think I'm going to watch and see what happens,” the skeleton grinned, something very like sweat beading against the side of his face. “It should be pretty interesting to see how far you get towards this mysterious goal of yours.”

“I'll reach it,” Frisk said, smiling. Ne had no idea what nir end goal was, or even if going was the right thing to do, but Frisk knew that it was something that had to be done.

“So you say, kid,” the skeleton said, laughing for the first time. He took a step back so that he wasn't crowding Frisk, and ne smiled at the kind gesture.

“This is the way through right?” Frisk asked, turning towards the bridge, and the skeleton nodded, looking conflicted about something when Frisk glanced back.

“It's the planks,” he said suddenly, looking very uncomfortable as he spoke up. “Every other plank...” his cheeks were bright blue again, and there seemed to be sweat beading on his skull.

Frisk smiled brightly, looking at the bridge again. With a deep breath, ne stepped forward, over the first wide plank onto the second one. Fisk looked back, opening nir mouth to say thank you only to find that the skeleton was gone.

Frisk said it anyways, calling out a little louder than ne would have otherwise, before turning forward again.

* * *

It wasn't conscious, Sans had control over his magic but sometimes it just wasn't conscious when he teleported. He just knew that the human had turned away, and then his magic struck out and pulled him to the nearest place he would be safe, and where no one would find out about this ability.

It wasn't something he liked doing where he might get caught, because trying to explain it would undoubtedly end up a painful experience. Then again, interaction with most monsters ended up a painful experience.

That was probably part of the reason he was so good at that particular form of magic, easier to avoid dying if he wasn't around when someone got the hankering to kill him. Which was why he was currently deep in the forest at the door to the Ruins, hugging his knees and hyperventilating.

Not that he could breathe at the moment, and no matter what species he was some form of respiration seemed to be necessary because the hollow between the bones of his chest seemed to feel tight. He was sweating, and he could feel rivulets of moisture running down his skull and spine. He felt like his bones were frozen to the core, but on fire at the same time, and he couldn't stop shaking.

**Why didn't the human have EXP?** It just didn't make sense, all humans had EXP at the very least, even if they didn't have LOVE or hadn't killed anyone in the underground. He knew humans could be poisoned by him, the only ones safe from his poison were the youngest and most innocent of children, and it wasn't safe to have them around for other reasons.

Sans didn't react well to things trying to kill him, not even kids.

The human just didn't make sense, even if they didn't have much EXP, everyone had some, that was just the way the world worked. The more EXP they had, the more damage the poison that was his very bones did. The more EXP he had gained, the stronger the poison had gotten, which was something that the bastard had probably never foreseen when he started experimenting. It permeated all of his attacks, and if an enemy didn't have EXP, Sans literally couldn't do damage to it.

**How did the human even exist?** EXP was life, and the only thing that kept other monsters from picking fights was them being able to sense the killing aura that came with EXP and LOVE. Sans had enough LOVE to choke a Temmi, and everyone knew what those little bastards were like.

Sans just about jumped out of his own bones when there was a soft knock on the door he was leaning up against, and he froze, the tightness in his chest squeezing.

“I know you're there... what's wrong?”Sans whimpered at the concern in that voice, the echo of a song playing inside of his skull.

“C... can't.. jus... jus talk to me...” It was like forcing his way though molasas just to say that much, but he really couldn't explain that the human from the Ruins, the voice's supposed friend, was making Sans freak out just by existing.

Thankfully, the voice in the Ruins was willing to talk since Sans needed it so much. The only time he mentioned the human, Sans' breath caught and his chest tightened again. Sans had no idea how the voice in the Ruins knew, but he quickly changed the topic, and the song in Sans' head took on a note of panic.

And then Sans was on the path towards the Ruins again, watching the door open, and the human come out.

* * *

Frisk rubbed nir chest, where the phantom pain of being stabbed through with a sword still lingered. After the trap at the bridge, Frisk had checked again at every new thing for traps and puzzles. Spikes, more drop pits, and one clever trip wire that would have dropped a massive tree trunk on nir had been what ne found.

Frisk was so proud of nirself for finding the traps and not revisiting the void, and then ne had been dragged into a fight with a dog who couldn't see things that weren't moving.

Of every monster that ne had fought so far, none of them had killed Frisk, or even been that threatening. This dog had been the first one ne had a serious problem with. Ne couldn't get out of the way of the attacks fast enough, and no matter how fast ne moved, there didn't seem to be a way around or past those blue attacks. They covered all of the area that Frisk could move in, and the when Frisk tried to run, the monster's magic kept nir pinned.

Frisk had panicked, trying again and again to get away, until the last blue sword had cut nir down.

Frisk tromped down the path of the snow area, towards the trapped bridge, just a little cranky about not knowing how to avoid or dodge that blue attack. The magic swords were long enough to hit all of the area Frisk had available in a fight, and it was rather annoying.

Frisk stepped over the stick in the way, and then, a few moments later, stopped frowning. Something was different, but ne wasn't sure what it was, and with a shrug, Frisk continued to the bridge, pausing a moment to look at the fall traps and make sure nothing had changed. Something did change though, because the Skeleton wasn't there. Frisk was expecting him to show up, but when ne looked around he didn't come.

Sighing, and rather disappointed, Frisk moved on, crossing the bridge and heading past the little shack in the woods. Now that ne knew where all the traps were, it didn't take as long to get through, and when ne reached the section where there there was a branch in the path, ne took the branch to the side instead of going straight ahead. There was another pit trap in the path, which Frisk was getting good about watching for, and ne skirted carefully around it only to discover a dead end as the path ended at a strong flowing river. There was a fishing pole set up, with the line in the water, and out of curiosity, Frisk carefully pulled the line up after making sure that messing with it wasn't going to set off a bomb or something.

Ne hadn't run into anything that exploded yet, but with the kind of traps Frisk had run into ne wasn't ruling it out.

The line had an advertisement on it for a fighting contest, where the winner would get a thousand gold, and the losers would end up dead. The advertisement had a monster that looked like a robot right out of science fiction novels, and Frisk smiled at how cool it looked before putting the add back where ne had found it. It was sad and surprising to see what looked like an advertisement for a wrestling match have such violent wording, and that was worrying.

This felt like a whole different world than the Ruins, and Frisk felt a sharp stab of nostalgia, even though it had only been about a day since ne had left, counting in the resets ne had done and the time it had taken to get past traps and travel distance.

Physically, it still felt like mid morning, but mentally and emotionally, Frisk was aware that ne was starting to get a little bit numb. Nowhere near as bad as ne had felt after facing the traps in the Ruins for the first time, but Frisk wasn't on top of anything right now.

Frisk backtracked to the fork in the road, once more ignoring the box and continuing on. Frisk was pretty sure it was trapped somehow, and was a little afraid of trying to deal with that. Ne was going to end up in front of the little guard hut that dog was in again, but maybe if ne crawled along the ground it wouldn't see nir. It would take a little bit of maneuvering, and after the next small clearing, Frisk immediately dropped to the ground, heading forward.

It didn't work, and Frisk soon found nemself trying to figure out how to dodge the blue attacks again, and when ne died it was with a scream of pain and frustration.

That was it, Frisk vowed, the next time, ne was just going to walk right up and pet the dog. All dogs liked pettings, right?

Frisk was musing on this as ne headed once more down the path towards the bridge, only to stop in surprise to see that same cool skeleton standing in front of the bridge, blue hoodie open, and his hands in his pockets. His face was less than expressive, but Frisk got the feeling that he was rather angry about something.

Frisk only hesitated a moment before heading forward, allowing nemself to smile brightly.

“Hi!” ne said, ready to strike up a friendly conversation and hopefully calm him down.

“It's your fault, isn't it? Reliving time again and again, it happens when you do something. What are you doing?” he demanded, and Frisk froze after drawing in a quick breath.


	8. No Compromise

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some things are worked out.

The human was shocked, and Sans growled, summoning bones with his magic and hurling his attack at the exposed human soul. It seemed this really was the human from the ruins, the one the Voice had gone all soft over, and Sans wondered how many times it had gone back and changed things to influence his friend.

The human cried out and flinched, obviously feeling the hit, though it did no real damage, and Sans saw blue for a moment as rage clouded the ability to really think. More attacks, more than Sans even realized he could call at once, flew towards the human, and although it flinched with each hit it wasn't taking any damage.

“Why can't I hit you?!” Sans shouted, unable to contain his rage, and his magic burning out quickly though the rage remained, and he fell to his knees, exhaustion starting to kick in. “Damnit!”

He was so angry, and the human was just standing there, taking all the attacks with flinches that were more from irritation than pain.

“I'm sorry?” the human said, looking so sad and it just made Sans so angry. How dare it look so regretful about whatever it was doing, and in his rage, Sans grabbed at it with his magic, managing to catch hold of it's soul.

The soul turned blue, and with a wave of his arm, Sans threw it down into the ravine. The body followed with a scream, and Sans had just a few moments of satisfaction before he found himself standing on the path again.

Frustration welled up inside of him and Sans fell to his knees again, this time letting out an inarticulate scream, even as in the distance the door opened again.

* * *

Frisk was cranky, and excited all at once, as ne all but flew out of the door, dashing forward to seek out the skeleton. If he knew something, anything, about what was happening, ne wanted to know. Frisk had no idea what was happening, or why, and the skeleton hadn't even given nir a chance to try to explain nemself.

That was where the cranky came in, and Frisk was going to give him a piece of nir mind when ne found him again. Even as Frisk dashed out of the Ruins though, ne heard a voice screaming and didn't hesitate to keep running forward.

He was in the middle of the path, a short way in front of the bridge again when Frisk got there, and he was on his knees, the rest of his body bent forward so that his skull was all but touching the ground while his bony fists pounded at the dirt of the path.

Frisk felt an upwelling of pity, and didn't hesitate to move forward, dropping to nir own knees and wrapping warm arms around him. He tensed, and Frisk didn't even know how ne knew because he was literally all bones, but ne knew ne needed to talk fast before he threw nir into the ravine again.

“I'm sorry, I'm so so sorry,” Frisk stated, feeling the tears on nir own face threatening to choke nir voice. “I don't know what's going on, I swear, all I know is that every time I die, I go back. I'm so sorry, I had no idea anyone else was getting caught up in whatever is going on.”

“Why... why are you even...” he cut himself off of what he was saying, and Frisk felt a watery smile trying to spread on nir face.

“I have no idea,” Frisk stated, sighing and pulling back as the skeleton pulled himself to a sitting position. “I tried staying put, in the Ruins, but I couldn't. I have to keep going forward, but when I do.. I die, a lot.”

“Well... shit,” the skeleton said, before breaking down into laughter. He sounded hysterical to put it kindly, and Frisk hung nir head in shame. “You’re also the cause of the thing last week, when it first started?”

“Yea... I had just fallen to the underground and kept dying to the traps in the ruins. They were meant to keep humans out, so it makes sense, but still,” Frisk trailed off, embarrassed as ne tried to remember exactly how many times ne had died getting past the traps in the Ruins. Frisk couldn't even remember how many tries it had taken to get past the crushing puzzle, let alone all of the others.

“Well... shit,” the skeleton said again, looking very tired. “Why didn't you just go back the way you came when you started dying.”

“I couldn't. The only way to go was forward,” Frisk said with a sigh, thinking back to it all. Ne hadn't even known if ne would have been able to go back to before when ne fell, and at the same time Frisk really didn't want to. There was something here that Frisk needed to do, something that was driving nir ever forward even when ne really didn't want to go. At the same time, Frisk had come to the mountain for a reason, and going back wouldn't change anything, while ne felt going forward would at least be making progress.

“I'm so sorry that you've gotten caught up in this,” Frisk started, and the Skeleton shook his head, looking extremely exhausted.

“Don't worry about it. I guess shit happens. I also guess I'm not going to be able to kill you like I'm supposed to,” He looked so dejected and sad, that Frisk moved to pat him on the arm before exactly what he was saying caught up in nir mind.

“Ki... kill me?” Frisk asked, freezing where ne was with nir arm outstretched but not yet touching the skeleton.

“Yea. I'm Sans, the skeleton, and I'm a sentry of Snowdin woods. My job is to kill humans that come to the underground, and if they have a soul, collect it for King Asgore. Really though, I'm too lazy to put much effort into it,” he sounded bitter as he said it, like he had heard it too many times and it had worn down on his self esteem. “I mean, I tried to kill you twice and you didn't even notice the first time. Then I just couldn't do any damage because the way my magic works.”

Frisk processed that for a moment, wondering when the first time he had tried to kill nir was, but ne put it out of mind when ne couldn't remember.

“You... you also helped me though, with the bridge trap,” Frisk pointed out, and the skeleton's face flushed bright blue before he hid it in his hands.

“I wasn't supposed to do that, I don't even know why I did that. God I'm such a bonehead.”

Frisk couldn't help but giggle at the half hearted pun, and Sans looked up, surprise written on his skull face.

“I would have gotten it eventually anyways, and at least you didn't have to wait around while I... died a lot trying to figure it out,” Frisk pointed out, smiling and then shivering as a positively icy breeze danced across the back of nir neck. In all the excitement of talking to Sans, Frisk had managed to forget exactly how cold it was here, and the temperature seemed to be dropping since ne wasn't moving around.

“Right,” Sans said suddenly, and he stood up, offering a hand to help Frisk up after a moment. “You're human, and you've still got a soul so you can feel things. Come on, I'll... I'll try to get you somewhere warmer. I mean, I'll walk you to Snowdin village. I can feel a storm building, and Snowdin is the best place to get snowed in.”

“How can you tell?” Frisk asked, looking up at the darkness of the cavern above. There was nothing that ne could see to indicate weather of any kind, but then, ne also still couldn’t tell where the light was coming from. 

“I can feel it... in my bones,” Sans said with a grin, and Frisk looked at him strangely for a moment before ne got it. 

With a laugh, Frisk accepted his hand, smiling brightly though there was a look of wonder on his face when ne touched him. The thought of making a new friend filled Frisk with Determination.

* * *

Frisk followed close behind him, across the bridge and forward. It didn't take very long to reach the sentry station that held the dog with the blue magic attacks, and Sans sauntered nonchalantly past, glaring at the dog who began growling at the sight of him. Frisk hurried to stay with Sans, trying to keep the skeleton between nir and the dog. If nothing else, surely he was better equipped to reason with the other monsters down here.

The dog spotted Frisk anyways, and ne yelped as ne was immediately pulled into a battle, nir soul being pulled forward by the monster's magic. Frisk didn't know what to do, and then suddenly Sans was right there next to nir, a bone from his magic shielding Frisk from the first blue attack.

“Sans what are you doing! It's a Human! Have you forgotten your duty to king and monsterkind?!” the dog shouted, and Frisk whimpered at the noise.

“Yea, I remember. Can't you see I'm taking the human to my brother?” Sans asked, and Frisk felt a thrill of fear in nir gut.

“Why take the Human in? Kill it!” another blue magic sword swept across the battlefield, carefully skirting Sans for some reason, and aiming right toward Frisk.

“N O,” Sans said, his voice as serious as the first time Frisk had heard it, right before really meeting the skeleton. “Let us past, Doggo. You don't want to have a bad time, do you buddy?”

“Are you... Are you taking the Humans side?? Sans!! Are you betraying the sentries?!” the dog, and Doggo really wasn't a very original name, shouted excitedly, and Frisk wondered why he seemed so happy. Would he maybe be willing to help them?

“Yea... I guess I am,” Sans said, looking super serious for a moment as he ducked his head down.

“YES!! Even the Frightening Papyrus wouldn't be able to save you now! Weakling!” Doggo shouted, and suddenly there were more attacks, coming faster and closer together, and all of them aiming for Sans.

The dog seemed more excited to fight Sans than Frisk, and that was very scary.

Sans dodged the attacks somehow, and Frisk didn't even know how he was doing it, because one second the attack was heading for Sans, and in the next moment, Sans was somewhere else. And then there was an attack headed for Frisk, and ne couldn't dodge it.

Frisk screamed, ready to take the hit but still scared when suddenly Sans was there.

Sans took the hit with a grunt, falling back and Frisk caught him, wrapping nir arms around him even as the battle faded.

“Sans, Sans are you ok? Oh god Sans!” Frisk checked him, looked at where the blue attack had sliced through his ribs before disappearing. “Sans, is there anything I can do?”

“Nah... nothin to be done kid,” Sans said, and he grinned in a rather macabre way, something reddish leaking out from where the ribs had been sliced clean through. “Don't... worry... aboud it...”

With one last shark toothed grin, he began to crumble into dust in Frisk's arms, and ne couldn't keep the scream inside, horror suffusing every bit of nir body even as Sans crumbled away, leaving behind his hoodie and a soul like Frisk's, but white and inverted.

Even as Frisk watched, it crumbled into dust as well.

Through tear streaked eyes, Frisk looked up to see a bizarre look somewhere between horror and glee on Doggo's face before a sense of rage flooded nir. Ne didn't want to keep going if this was the price that had to be paid, and ne would rather suffer another painful death than go on without Sans.

Then Frisk was back in the void again, determination guiding nir back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh Sans... why did you have to go do a boneheaded thing like that XD.... 
> 
> Also, ya'all might notice that this story is now part of a series. I've posted the first side story, Genisys, which is an origin story about Sans and Paps. Please take a look at it and tell me what you think. 
> 
> I like hearing what people think.


	9. Pet the Dog

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Doggo gets pet.

Frisk expected to come to back on the other side of the door, and even as ne passed through the void on nir way back. Instead, Ne came back, staring at Sans where he had helped nir up, still holding Sans' hand.

Sans who was looking at nir, and his hand with a dawning look of horror, before he screamed, falling forward and clutching his chest where he had been cut open before. Frisk didn't think anything of it, wrapping the skeleton in a tight hug, and sobbing into him.

“I'm sorry, I'm so sorry oh gods I'm so sorry,” ne babbled, unable to slow the flow of words. Instead, ne clung to Sans as he finished screaming, although he didn't stop trembling.

“Kid... Frisk, what the hell. I died... I turned to Dust, I felt it, what the hell happened?” Sans finally said, leaning into Frisk and ne held on tight, not letting him go.

“You died,” ne confirmed, sympathy welling up. Dying sucked, a lot, and if Sans remembered it, that was really bad. Frisk remembered every time ne had died, but it felt like ne had gotten used to it, numb for at least a little while until there was the chance to slow down and actually think about it.

Thinking back, Frisk had definitely not handled it well the first several times ne had died, and it would be asking more than it was reasonable to for Sans to handle it better.

“I Fucking Died!” Sans shouted, dropping down to his knees and cursing a bit more. “How am I back? Did... did that bastard kill you too? I'll murder him, sneak attack. I'll break him down and turn him to Dust.”

“Don't... please don't,” Frisk said, shaking nir head. “He didn't do anything to me... I... I have no idea what happened, but Doggo didn't kill me. I... I saw you die. Your body crumbled in my arms... I couldn't... I couldn't go on knowing that someone had... that you had... died for me...”

“Kid...”

“No! If I die, I'll come back. I know that for sure, but if you die, or if anyone else gets hurt. Please no. I wouldn't be able to... no...” Frisk broke down sobbing, pulling far enough away from Sans to curl into nemself.

“Shit... Kid. It's ok. Seriously, it wouldn't take anything to crush the whole sentry station,” Sans started, and Frisk sobbed, shaking nir head.

“No... please. Give me time. I'll find a way past him and no one will have to get hurt,” Frisk knew ne was begging, and ne looked to him, the tears streaming down nir face.

“You... really don't want anyone to die,” Sans said, and there was wonder in his voice like he couldn't even conceive of someone who didn't want to kill anyone. “Shit kid, why not ask for the sun too. We're about as likely to get both.”

Frisk frowned, and Determination welled up inside of nir. Sans sputtered where Frisk was looking at him, and he started coughing.

“Shit... shit you really think it's possible? That's what you're going for?” the skeleton asked, and Frisk nodded. “Shit... shit.”

Sans looked stunned for a moment, before reaching into his jacket and pulling out a red bottle, twisting off the top and chugging it back.

Frisk watched in fascination as absolutely nothing spilled out from under his skull, or showed between his ribs. When Sans caught nir staring at him, he shrugged, and Frisk grinned.

“You are so cool,” Frisk stated, and Sans laughed, his cheeks turning blue again.

“Nah... not really. Want some?” he said, offering the bottle to Frisk, and ne hesitated before nodding, extending nir hand to take the bottle. Frisk was a little bit thirsty, and though ne wasn't sure what Sans was drinking, it would probably be fine, as long as it wasn't alcohol, in which case Frisk would give it back.

It wasn't alcohol.

It was much, much worse.

Frisk coughed, nir eyes tearing up again, and ne tried not to drop the bottle, holding it insistently back towards Sans. Ne couldn't tell if he took the bottle before ne was crawling in the snow beside the path, stuffing as much of it as ne could into nir mouth to cool the lava like burn. It wasn't as helpful as Frisk had hoped it would be, and even as ne continued to shovel the ice cold snow into nir mouth, ne heard Sans laughing.

Eventually though he moved forward, one hesitant skeleton hand rubbing Frisk's back as the feeling of pure fire began to finally fade away.

After a few more moments, when Frisk wasn't shoveling the cold snow in so desperately anymore, Sans sat down next to nir, his arm over nir shoulder and Frisk leaned against him.

“That was not nice,” Frisk finally stated, reaching over to poke at one of Sans' ribs, and he drew in a sharp breath as ne did.

Frisk looked up, wondering if something was wrong, but there was still a wide grin on his face. Considering that Frisk knew ne had seen him frown and scowl, ne took that as a promising sign.

“Yea, sorry about that. I didn't really think about it because almost no one else will accept a drink of hot sauce from me,” Sans winked, and Frisk giggled at him.

“I guess they all know better,” Frisk stated, making a face.

“Well... now you do too,” Sans said, and Fisk felt his arm tighten around nir. “Come on... we've got to find a way to get past Doggo. I've got a few tricks up my sleeve, but I've never used them with company before, and theoretically they're pretty dangerous so... I've got a last resort, but lets try everything else first.”

Frisk nodded, and got up with Sans, and he looked at nir face closer when they were standing, looking worried.

“Uhm... kid, is your face supposed to be bright red?” he asked, and Frisk rolled nir eyes.

“It was the hot sauce. Believe it or not, my brother pulled that one on me before, though he put it in my juice. That was a couple of years ago and my whole face felt hot for hours. I don't remember liking it before, but I liked hot sauce even less after that,” Frisk explained. “Any time I eat something spicy my face and neck get red.”

“Huh... I'll have to keep that in mind then,” Sans stated, though he looked thunderous as Frisk spoke about nir older brother. He then shrugged, looking away for a moment before glancing back at Frisk. “So, got any plans for trying to get past Doggo?”

Frisk looked past the bridge, the pressure building in nir head to go forward.

“I'm going to pet that dog.”

* * *

Frisk appreciated that Sans had finally stopped laughing. They were almost back to Doggo's sentry station by the time Sans' mirth had died down to mere chuckles every once in awhile.

Frisk stopped before they reached the stretch of path that led to Doggo, and turned to Sans, reaching out to the Skeleton.

“Sans, I need you to promise that no matter what happens, you won't interfere,” ne tried hard to convey pure sincerity. Ne had a plan and ne needed Sans to stay safe, it was frightening that one hit had killed Sans.

Frisk knew that if Sans died again, ne would do anything to go back and prevent it.

“Kid, 'pet the dog' is not a plan for getting by, it's a declaration of suicide,” Sans stated suddenly much more serious as he glared at Frisk. Frisk glared right back though, not willing to back down.

“Let me deal with it Sans. I have a plan, and I need you to stay out of it. Stay out of sight, ok,” Frisk asked, and Sans growled, his left eye briefly flashing blue.

“I can get us past Doggo easily, none of this petting the dog crap,” Sans stated, and Frisk shook nir head.

“No. Please, Sans, I really don't want anyone to get hurt.”

Sans stared down into Frisk's face, his eye burning blue for a moment longer before it abruptly cut out, and Sans slumped.

“Shit kid, you really ask for it all, don't you,” Sans ran one bony hand over his skull, looking towards the sentry station. “Listen, I'm not going to stand around and watch you die. I guess I'll see you back at the bridge.”

Sans turned and started walking in the direction of the bridge, and between one step and the next he was gone.

Squaring nir shoulders, Frisk went forward, determined to pet Doggo and get past without fighting.

* * *

Sans didn't go far. He would end up back at the Bridge when Frisk died anyways, and it was frustrating but at least now he knew what the hell was going on.

It was a sucky consolation prize, but one that had never stopped him from accepting the consolation prize before. Sometimes, a lot of times, it was the only prize. Still, despite what he had said to Frisk, he couldn't just leave the kid by nemself. Deep inside, he was rooting for the kid despite everything.

The voice in the Ruins was right, Frisk was different. There was just something about Frisk that made Sans want to help nir. That same whatever also made Sans not want to disappoint the stupid kid.

Zero EXP, and Zero LOVE. It was a little easier to believe after spending time talking to the human. No one was that dead set against violence, not even the voice in the Ruins, and Sans just couldn't understand why. There was just no reason for the kid to be so set against violence. It was simply a way of life, the only way of life in the Underground.

Sans was close enough to watch, but outside of the area magic would be able to sense him in.

He watched as the kid approached Doggo's station, moving quietly and slowly, and he watched as Doggo launched his attacks.

There was no possible way for the kid to dodge for the most part. The blue attacks hit the exposed soul and chipped away at Frisk's body, leaving bloody cuts in nir arms in addition to the damage Sans could see stacking up on nir soul.

It took everything Sans had not to teleport down there and slaughter Doggo for what he was doing to the human. The kid was stupid, and deep inside Sans there was the fear that if the human died again, Frisk wouldn't come back the way ne kept saying ne would, the way that ne had over and over thus far. 

Still, if the kid wanted to commit suicide, there was very little Sans could do. The only way to protect his heart was to accept that if the kid was going to do something stupid, the kid was going to get killed. And if Frisk got killed and didn't come back, well, that meant that ne was weak.

The weak were only EXP fodder anyways.

Frisk tried again and again to dodge as Sans watched, and then he saw the human fall, nir soul having taken too much damage to continue to support the humans life force. It was fascinating to watch the soul shatter in the split second before he was back at the bridge, grinning down at Frisk.

“See, told you it wouldn't work. Ready for me to take care of the problem?” Sans asked, possibly more smug than he should have been. The look on the kid's face was positively scathing though, nir lips pressing together and nir eyebrows scrunching together.

It looked like the kid was determined to try again, and Sans stepped aside, letting Frisk get to the bridge even as he sighed. As soon as the kid was out of sight, Sans teleported to his hiding spot to watch Frisk keep trying to pet Doggo, or find some other way past the sentry.

The next time Frisk died, Sans made the offer to take care of the problem again, and Frisk shook nir head even as ne strode forward. Sans let nir.

Sans kept offering for the next dozen attempts, and each time the kid would get that look on nir face before striding forward. After that Sans stopped offering to take care of the problem, simply stepping aside.

That look on Frisk's face was so odd, and Sans found himself watching as the human stopped trying to sneak past Doggo, stopped trying to bamboozle nir way past. Ne was just walking right up and letting Doggo attack nir.

The next time Frisk died, Sans stopped nir with an outstretched hand. “Kid... this is the last time. After this I'm taking matters into my own hands.”

Sans wasn't sure he really would, or if he would let the kid argue him out of it again, but it would certainly be interesting to see what the kid did next.

It was a habit now, let the kid cross the bridge and then teleport to his hiding place to watch the fight, to watch Frisk die again.

This time, Frisk marched up to the Sentry station once more, and Doggo's magic triggered the fight as he yelled something. Then the first blue attack was headed straight for Frisk, and for the first time Frisk faced it head on, not moving to defend nemself or dodge. That was fascinating, and Sans took a moment to muse that the kid was ready for him to step in and take care of the problem after all.

Frisk didn't even flinch as the blue attack sliced into nir, and Sans expected to be dragged back to the bridge. He wasn't though, and he stared intently at the place the blue sword had passed right through Frisk, leaving no wound and no physical mark. Sans almost started cursing as he realized what had happened, and cursed himself over and over for not recognizing what was happening.

Doggo calmed down a little when his attack went right through the human, and Sans frowned, wondering why the ruthless sentry was reacting the way he was. Of course, he got excited again as Frisk stepped forward and started petting him.

The human had done it. Frisk was petting the damn dog. When another blue sword sliced forward Frisk stopped moving, only to resume petting Doggo when the attack was over. Sans watched in fascination as Frisk grinned brightly through two more rounds of this, petting Doggo each time, until finally the canine let out an inarticulate sound that Sans could hear even from his hiding place.

Doggo slumped forward, looking dejected, and Frisk was undoubtedly saying something to cheer the dumb mutt up. Whatever it was seemed to work, because with a hesitant pat to the head, Doggo retreated to inside the Sentry station, where he disappeared from sight and Frisk moved triumphantly forward. It only took a moment for Frisk to reach the point in the path right next to where Sans was hiding, and he stepped out with a grin.

“Well I'll be kid, you finally did it.”

The bright grin and bounce in the humans step was enough to make Sans glad that he hadn't interfered.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alternative hot sauce scene:
> 
> Frisk took the bottle, and after a cautions sip nir eyes widened in delight and ne drank deeply of the spicy hot sauce. 
> 
> Sans watched in awe, before shaking his head. "Kid, you are way scarier than like... ninety percent of the monsters who live here."
> 
> "Nonsense... uhm... have you got any more of this?"


	10. Snowed In

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In my defense... it's really late and I'm really really tired... 
> 
> 8D Enjoy and if you see anything glaringly wrong please let me know.

It only got harder from there, and Frisk shivered at the chill in the air as ne walked with Sans towards the village. Even with the skeleton escorting nir, Frisk still ran into fights. Considering that Frisk would rather die than let anyone else die, Sans had stepped back and let the human handle it for the most part.

Frisk had still been freaked out when Sans had suddenly panicked and stuffed nir behind a large snowman before darting off. The snowman had proven to be a decent conversationalist for the several minutes Sans was away, but that might have had more to do with the fact that Sans had hissed something to it before leaving Frisk behind.

That had been when Frisk caught nir first glimpse of the Terrifying Papyrus.

The skeleton was head, shoulders, and most of a rib cage taller than Sans, and aside from the fact that he was a skeleton, Frisk couldn't imagine someone who looked more different than Sans. Despite being all bones, Sans gave the impression of being rather round and fluffy. Even his shark toothed grin was congenial, instead of menacing like his brothers. Frisk had to assume that Papyrus was older, he was certainly much larger, and sharper, than Sans.

Everything except his teeth, which were larger than human teeth, but otherwise they looked much like human teeth. Otherwise, Sans' brother was very tall, not as tall as Asriel but much taller than Frisk, and he was wearing what looked like some serious armor. It was red, with flame decals on it, a breastplate and girdle. His bones were mostly black, but Frisk thought ne saw a collar peeking out from under his breast plate.

He was also very loud, giving Frisk enough time to hunker down so ne wouldn't be seen.

“SNOWMAN!” he said, marching right up to the snowman that Frisk was hiding behind. “HAS MY BROTHER COME THROUGH?”

“Sans? Yea... yea he wandered through an hour ago... He said he was headed back out to the far sentry station,” the snowman said, and from where Frisk cowered behind it, ne could have sworn the snowman was sweating.

Papyrus paused for a moment, and Frisk could all but hear him eyeballing the Snowman. “HE _SAID_ WHERE HE WAS GOING?”

“Well... not so much, but he was headed in the right direction...” the snowman stuttered, and Frisk heard Papyrus scoff.

“HE COULD BE ANYWHERE YOU IDIOT. IF YOU SEE HIM, YOU WILL TELL HIM THAT I REQUIRE HIM TO CHECK THE CALIBRATION OF HIS PUZZLES. NOT THAT I EXPECT YOU TO SEE HIM,” Papyrus was loud, and Frisk had no doubt that no matter where in the underground Sans was he could hear that shout. The scary part was that Frisk had the feeling that this was fairly quiet for him. “MY BROTHER IS FAR TOO CRAFTY FOR SOMEONE LIKE YOU TO CATCH.”

Frisk peeked out just far enough to watch Papyrus stalk off, his large boots leaving heavy prints in the snow.

There was something that struck Frisk as a little odd, even as ne heard Papyrus yelling at some other monster in the distance. He was still looking for Sans, and spreading the word about wanting the puzzles calibrated. Presumably if he spread the word far enough loud enough, Sans would hear about it.

“He's something else, isn't he?” the snowman said conversationally, and Frisk nodded, though ne didn't come out of hiding yet. “He's the scariest monster in Snowdin.”

“Is... is that really a good thing?” Frisk asked, shivering behind the snowman.

“Of course it is! Humans don't stand a chance when the Terrifying Papyrus is on the hunt!” the snowman said with enthusiasm, before nervously chuckling. “I mean... when humans go on murder sprees he hunts them down...”

“Nice save, snow poff,” Frisk jolted in surprise, before grinning up at Sans. “Heya kid, sorry about running out on you but I had to make a tele _bone_ call.”

“Really?” Frisk asked, laughing as ne accepted his hand to stand up.

“Eh... less that more I don't really know how to face my brother right now. Thanks for hiding the kid, Snowpoff,” Sans said, “I'm pretty sure Papyrus is going to kill anyone he finds harboring a human, even me.”

“Doubt it,” the snowman said with a snort, before making a face. “Get out of here you reprobate. And remember our deal.”

“Deal?” Frisk asked as ne followed Sans down the path.

“Yea, the Temis have been trying to cut in on Snowey's black market trading recently. In exchange for hiding you for a minute while I calibrated my puzzles, I'm going to get them to back off a bit,” Sans said proudly, and Frisk giggled, shaking nir head before tripping with a muffled shriek into a pit trap.

The only reason Frisk didn't land on the spikes at the bottom was because nir soul suddenly turned blue inside nir chest, lifting nir back onto solid ground.

“Shit, kid, you can't let your guard down wandering around out here. I've re-calibrated my puzzles to ignore you, but every other trap is still active and tuned to humans,” Sans said shakily, glaring at the revealed pit trap.

“Calibrated?” Frisk asked shakily, huddling in on nirself and shivering. Ne hadn't had to load in a little while, and ne was getting colder and colder. Theoretically Frisk would be fine for a little while longer, but nir pants and shoes were soaked through, and nir sweater wasn't keeping out the cold quite as well as it had earlier.

“Yea... the magic is tuned. It's complicated and I'll explain when we're somewhere safe and warm. You uh... you're starting to turn blue. Since I've never seen that color on humans before, I don't think it's natural.”

“It's not,” Frisk stated, clenching nir teeth as ne realized that it wasn't just perception, the temperature really was dropping.

“Come on kid. These woods are laced with traps, but it's probably going to be easier to get through than following the road.”

Frisk nodded, Determination welling up inside of nir at the thought that now ne had seen the brother Sans loved so much.

* * *

It wasn't that easy of course, although Sans guided nir past the traps he knew about and could, and pointing out the two he had a hand in.

Frisk was glad he had gotten nir past those ones, because they were vicious, and utterly different from each other. Ne shuddered and put the thought out of nir mind. It was easy, because there were other things to focus on, like trying not to set off trip wires that would cause explosions and miniature black holes. Frisk wasn't sure ne believed Sans when he told nir that was what his trap did, but ne also wasn't going to test it out.

There were also traps that were somehow attuned to a human's more solid body, that only became active when Frisk was near. Frisk had reset five times to those and counted nirself lucky for it, because ne had come back after the snowman and nir almost encounter with Papyrus.

Frisk was also well aware that ne was lucky that ne hadn't died more times than that.

They had also done a bit of talking, Frisk asking more about Papyrus and Snowdin, and the rest of the monsters in between traps. It was educating for the most part, although some of it gave Frisk the oddest sense of deja vu.

“Just a bit further kid, and I'll find someplace to tuck you up. I think no one's using the old shed for anything right now,” Sans said, and Frisk shivered again even as he wrapped an arm around nir shoulder.

“I.. it's... fi..fine,” Frisk managed, smiling at Sans even as they continued to make their way forward. It was a very good thing that Sans was with nir, because Frisk wasn't feeling too focused right now. The air was getting colder, and it had gotten darker somehow as the wind picked up.

* * *

Sans watched the human with worry, frowning as the kid stumbled more and more. He was doing a good job of steering nir clear of traps, and when a monster got frisky and decided to attack, well. He had said he would step out of the way, but with the way Frisk was stumbling, he had taken to glaring the other monsters off. Not that there were many willing to hang out with such a large storm coming, even the Sentries had taken shelter for the storm. Frisk could come back to play with them later, if ne really felt that strongly about it, but Sans didn't feel like going back a few hours several times just because Frisk was too tired and cold to move properly.

“Come on kid, we're almost there,” he said again, his arm around nir shoulder to try to share whatever warmth he could with the human. Skeletons didn't have much actual warmth to share at the best of times though, and the magic that kept him comfortable wasn't going to transfer to the human.

“R... rest..” Frisk said, trying to stumble to the side of the path, and Sans pulled nir back to walking down the middle.

“Kid, you rest now, you'll wake up before the storm again. And then we'll have to do this again. Let's not, ok?” Sans said, tugging the human and trying to make nir go faster.

They continued on for a few moments, and they were almost to Snowdin when Sans felt Frisk stumble again, and this time, fall down.

It was for a heart stopping moment that Sans stare at where the human was sprawled in the snow, with more settling over nir as it continued to fall from the fat clouds that had gathered above the Snowdin area. Presumably the human was still alive, because they hadn't reset yet, but it would be very annoying to have to do this all over again.

“Shit kid,” Sans muttered, before leaning down and picking the human up. He had planned to go into town first to distract anyone still outside while he had Frisk sneak to the shed, but that wasn't going to work right now. It took him a few moments to figure out how to hold the kid, he wasn't trying to hurt Frisk and the holds seen in picture books didn't seem to work out for carrying someone almost as tall as he was, although the human was surprisingly light. Papyrus weighed more and he was all bone.

Snickering to himself, Sans carried the human, hoping and praying that no one was going to see him.

Even though it was theoretically the middle of the day, the town was all but deserted. No one was in the streets, or going between the buildings. Even the shop was closed down tight, though there was a bit of light visible around the storm shutters. With as thick as the snow flurries were, Sans was less than surprised. 

Sans hurried along, holding Frisk close. It felt like the luck of the ages as he made his way to the shed. It was on the far side of town, but it was also the only place in town that didn't have a dozen monsters in and out daily. It might not be a consideration during the blizzard, but if Frisk took more than a few days to get ready to move on it would be a pain to explain.

The only possible problem with using the shed, was that Papyrus was the only one who had the key. Thankfully Sans had figured the way around that years ago, although he didn't usually go into Papyrus' space.

Closing the shed door behind him, Sans set Frisk down on a beaten down couch in the corner, tucking a tatty red blanket that his brother was reluctant to throw away for some reason around the human. All he could do now was hope that Frisk wouldn't freeze to death and wait out the storm.


	11. Enter Papyrus!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Frisk gets sick.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apologies ahead of time, I meant to do a little blurb from Papyrus' point of view... and then he hijacked half the chapter.

It was too hot, and there was something pinning nir arms to nir side. Frisk thrashed, trying to move, and flailed as ne dropped, landing on a hard wooden floor with a thump.

“Shit... kid, kid wake up!” Sans was shaking nir shoulder, and Frisk looked up blearily, nir eyes feeling like sandpaper had been rubbed over them. “Tell me you're doing better kid. We can't wait here for much longer.”

Frisk nodded, slowly trying to detangle nemself from the thin red blanket that was wrapped around nir.

“'M fine...” ne said, although it was taking a lot of effort to get untangled. Every movement felt like Frisk was forcing nir limbs through a thick molasses, and Frisk was sweating by the time ne got nir legs untangled enough to stand up.

That proved to be a mistake, and Frisk was struck with a sense of deja vu as ne fell face first towards the ground. There was a tug and blue magic caught nir before nir face hit the floor.

“Kid, you good to stand?” Sans asked, and Frisk nodded. The blue magic set Frisk down on nir feet, and Frisk smiled.

“Thank you,” Frisk said, or at least tried to say. It didn't come out very clearly, and Frisk wobbled as nir legs tried to decide whether they were solid legs, or wet noodles. Frisk tried again, and actually managed to sound intelligible this time.

“Are you okay kid? I know you said your face turns red when you eat spicy things, but you haven't eaten anything spicy lately,” Sans said, and Frisk nodded, trying to dredge up a smile.

“I'm fine.. it's just super hot in here,” ne said, wobbling a bit as nir legs finally made the choice to be wet noodles. Thankfully Frisk was in front of the little couch, so although nir descent was an uncontrolled fall, ne managed to land mostly sitting up. Sans did not look reassured.

“Kid, it's like twenty degrees in here, and even I know that's pretty cold for most people to tolerate.”

“Oh...” Frisk didn't know what else to say and it took a minute to realize that even though nir head felt hot enough to fry an egg on, nir arms and legs felt like blocks of ice. Maybe it was just because Sans had mentioned it, but suddenly Frisk was freezing again.

“Shit kid, we can't stay here long, Papyrus is going to be checking the shed on his rounds... he keeps it locked but he's paranoid about anyone getting in here and seeing his Mettaton Figurines collection,” Sans said, and Frisk shook nir head.

“Meettawhat?” ne asked, bleary eyes looking around for said figurines. All over the walls were splashes of color and posters of the robot ne had seen on the advertisement so long ago. Where there weren't posters, there were shelves, but Frisk couldn't seem to focus enough to look at the figurines on them.

“You don't... of course not, you're a human that just waltzed out of the Ruins. Mettaton is the greatest entertainer of the generation. I mean, he wouldn't win against my cool bro, but he's a pretty strong fighter. He's got a show where there are puzzles and challenges all culminating in a big fight. If anyone manages to beat Mettaton they get a huge prize of reward money,” Sans explained with a grin. “He doesn't even kill the strongest challengers, because he wants them to get stronger to be a real challenge. The weak he slaughters without mercy.”

Frisk blanched, a wave of dizziness washing over nir. “Thas horrbl..” ne managed, even as the room faded around nem.

“Kid... kid, what's wrong?” Sans' voice sounded worried, but it was also like hearing something from far away and getting further.

* * *

Sans sighed as the human passed out, anxiety churning in his ribcage.

“Shit kid, I see we're not doing anything by halves are we?” he asked, looking at the red color of the human's face.

Humans weren't supposed to be that color, were they? The kid's face was usually a lighter brownish color, right? Unless they ate something spicy, but they hadn't eaten anything spicy, come to think of it they hadn't eaten anything in quite a while, a few 'hours' at least, and several resets right?

Sans knew he was working himself up, but it was pretty hard not to especially since the safe haven of the shed wouldn't be safe for much longer. With the storm picking up outside, even skeletons wouldn't want to be out in it so undoubtedly Papyrus would be heading this way soon if he wasn't already.

As if his very fears had summoned the inevitable, Sans heard the key sliding into place on the lock on the shed. His brother didn't really like finding him in here, even though it was one of the safe places that Sans liked to sleep in, and Papyrus would undoubtedly be very cranky indeed to find Sans harboring a human here, even one with a soul.

The lining of Sans' jacket fluffed and he reached out, one bony hand wrapping around the human's wrist as his magic kicked in, teleporting him away. In the tiny part of his mind that wasn't panicking he hoped that holding onto Frisk would bring nir with him.

* * *

There was a faint smell of ozone as Papyrus pushed the door to the shed open and he hesitated a moment in the doorway. It only took a thought to summon one of his bones, the attack at the ready as he stalked into his space.

The shed was safe, he made sure of that with threats and violence, but there was always a monster or two that didn't get the memo that the shed was off limits. Looking around confirmed that there was no one there, but the long red blanket he kept on the back of the couch was in a pile on the floor. That, combined with the smell, probably meant that his brother had been here.

Papyrus sighed, closing the door behind him and locking out the snowstorm as he let his weapon dissipate. Sans had probably been sleeping on the couch again, and although Papyrus was happy that his fragile brother felt safe enough to lower his guard in Papyrus' space, he really should have been awake and recalibrating his puzzles.

“SANS, YOU LAZYBONES... WHAT AM I GOING TO DO WITH YOU,” Papyrus sighed, reaching over to pick up the blanket with a fond smile. It had once been a cape, and Papyrus had mended it and re-purposed it after his first fight with the now famous Mettaton.

Now wasn't the time though, since if Sans had been hiding out in his shed, the smaller skeleton had to be worried or worked up about something. He knew all of his brothers habits, had been watching Sans for so long, and knew when Sans was stressed out.

Hopefully the blanket being in a crumple meant that his brother had been trying to sleep, but more likely it meant that Sans had been huddled on the couch drowning in anxiety. After all that Sans had done for him, it wasn't so much a choice, but the default response to go find his brother.

Papyrus hadn't seen Sans once on his patrols, and with the storm raging through Snowdin and the surrounding areas it was most likely that Sans wouldn't head out to the sentry stations.

There was the possibility that Sans had headed into waterfall when Papyrus walked in, but it wasn't a very likely one. Papyrus sighed, exiting the shed and heading for the house that he and his brother laid claim to. It was a fairly average house for the area, wooden paneling dinged and a little worse for the wear, but it was sturdy and had a solid lock on it. Papyrus was under no illusions that there were monsters who would dearly love to catch him unawares and kill him and his brother. Thankfully the house was an elaborate trap, and the only part that either him or Sans ever used was the kitchen, and the boobie traps were calibrated by magic not to hit either of the skeletons.

Since a skeleton apparently had a different magical wavelength than most monsters, Sans and he were safe, but other monsters were walking into a deathtrap.

Sans' sanctuary was below the house proper, only accessible from a hidden trap door at the back of the house. Even with the storm blowing around him, Papyrus didn't abandon all sense, and he did a quick sweep to make certain that no one was watching before he pulled up the trap door.

It would camouflage itself behind him when he closed the door behind him on his way down the stairs, so he pulled it closed without a thought. The door wasn't Sans' primary method of getting inside, and Papyrus hadn't been lying to the Snowman earlier when he said that his brother could have been anywhere despite the direction he had gone.

It wasn't a magic that Papyrus could do, and it wasn't something his careful inquiries had ever revealed that any other monsters could do, but Sans had a special method of getting around that would let him get from the center of town all the way out to the door in the forest in mere moments. Sans called it using 'shortcuts', but Papyrus rather thought it was a very special magic.

The only reason Sans hadn't destroyed the door was so that Papyrus could come in if he needed to.

To find out if his brother was doing alright after not having been able to find him all day, Papyrus was fairly certain that he would have dug out the basement with his bare hands if he needed to. Hoping not to startle Sans into leaving again, Papyrus went down the long flight of stairs quietly, feeling the calibrated traps and magic testing him on the way down. Despite it being a fairly common trigger, most monsters would never feel the magic that set off the traps to kill them, and Papyrus smirked.

It looked like Sans was keeping at least some of his puzzles properly calibrated, although the only answer to these puzzles was to be a skeleton. There were only two skeleton monsters in the whole of the Underground now.

The long staircase gave Papyrus a few moments to muse on the past, and the history he had looked up when he became one of the Royal Heads of Guard. As long as he was circumspect about it, he could browse the history books and journals, including the ones he hid his knowledge of from Sans.

Papyrus paused at the bottom of the stairs, his hand on the doorknob as he listened to see if his brother was up and moving around or silent, or possibly not even there. The taller skeleton frowned as he heard his brothers quiet, deep voice speaking, and the panic had him pushing the door open quickly.

“Come on kid, don't give up now, think of all the progress you've made...” he was saying, leaning over the mattress that took up the far corner of the open room. The smaller skeleton looked exhausted, and he was shaking with whatever he was doing, and for a moment Papyrus felt a blinding rage flash through him. If someone had harmed his brother, he was going to have words for them, engraved into the business end of his magical attacks. “Oh gods kid, I don't even know what to do to help you...” Sans muttered, and Papyrus stepped fully into the room.

“WHAT'S WRONG WITH THEM?” he asked, moving over to where Sans was kneeling. On one hand, it was adorable the way his brother's jacket fluffed out around him as he tensed, obviously startled, and on the other hand, he hoped his brother knew that if the situation was really stressing him out that much, Papyrus would be willing to help.

It was the least he could do for all that Sans had sacrificed for him.

“Paps, I can explain...” Sans trailed off as Papyrus came to a stop right next to him, and Papyrus felt himself flush with both fear and rage at what was lying on the mattress.

“SANS... THIS HAD BETTER BE ONE HELL OF AN EXPLANATION.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> -_- Papyrus!!
> 
>  
> 
> Also, I really, REALLY, like getting comments!


	12. Interlude

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some thoughts.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't think anyone says a word in this chapter.

The Ruins had changed. The cold tension of everyone struggling to hold back the instincts to fight and kill, the ruthless joy in setting up deadly traps and puzzles, the casual insults that came as easily as breathing. It was all gone, and the very air felt clearer and more sweet than it had in the centuries since Asriel had claimed the Ruins.

Monsters were greeting each other with smiles, or the equivalent of smiles, and cheerful words, where before they had been secular, family groups looking out for each other and no one else. Anyone not part of a particular group was viewed with suspicion and hostility, which in the Ruins ranged from dirty looks to mild scuffles. Asriel kept those from escalating to anything deadly, but those scuffles had been a daily part of life. It was natural, something that happened when everyone was enclosed, trapped away from the sun and resources were limited.

Then Frisk had arrived. From that first day where Frisk had made it all the way through, the monsters ne had interacted with had been different. Over the week that Frisk had spent in the Ruins, the change had become more and more marked. It was like a light had come to the Ruins.

When it started, the monsters had looked at each other with less suspicion, less anger at those who were different. Then they had started smiling at each other, noticing the good traits in those who were all but strangers, and finally greeting each other. Asriel hadn't expected it to last, especially not when Frisk had insisted on moving on, and was no longer there.

Instead, it had spread. At first, Asriel had been able to tell who Frisk had met and befriended because they were the ones who were calmer, more accepting. Now, almost everyone was willing to give each other a chance.

It was incredible, an amazing thing to have seen and watched. Even now, it felt both like a dream and like he had lived this way for a thousand years. It was the next best thing to the freedom of standing under the sun and the stars and looking up to see the universe stretching out in front of him. In his tour of the Ruins today, he had seen a froggit child and a young Loox cooperating together to make a simple, non lethal puzzle.

It was almost enough to drown out the suffocating silence since Frisk had left. The soul song that had become a comforting crescendo while Frisk was there, had faded to the point where Asriel could barely hear it. He had to listen hard from right next to the door from the Ruins to even hear it, and the chords that had been part of his own soul song since Chara had died were gone.

Despite the fact that Frisk had only been gone a day, it felt like ne had been gone for weeks, or years even. The deafening silence was uncomfortable at best, and it felt like he was alone in his own head for the first time in centuries.

Asriel didn't like it, and he wanted to storm out into the rest of the Underground, find Frisk, and bring nir home to stay. It wouldn't work that way of course, there was something driving the young human that was stronger than Asriel's need for nir to stay and Asriel knew he wouldn't be able to bring himself to hurt Frisk to keep nir here.

Still, though it was distant, Asriel called with his own soul song, asking Frisk to come back, and hoping that the other song, the song from beyond the door, would be kind and keep the human safe. Perhaps they could both come home to the Ruins some day.

* * *

Frisk groaned, wondering why ne hurt all over nir body. With each reset all of nir injuries were gone when ne came back, but there was a deep ache all through nir body, like ne had been tenderized in nir sleep. With a groan, Frisk tried to turn over, gray eyes fluttering open at the weight laying across nir arm and half nir chest.

Frisk smiled when ne saw Sans draped across nir and the bed his body laying across nir arm, and his hand laying on nir chest. It wasn't much pressure, but it felt comforting, and with great effort Frisk bought nir own hand up to cover his. Ne was warm, and it was so tempting to just close nir eyes and rest some more, but ne didn't know where they were or if it was safe. If it wasn't safe, Frisk wasn't going to just sleep again.

Dragging nir eyes way Frisk looked around, realizing that ne was on some manner of bed. Everything else in the room looked very high, and it took a moment to realize that the bed, or more likely mattress, was on the ground. Frisk wasn't sure how Sans was sitting next to the bed so that half of his body was lying forward, but he was sleeping half across Frisk and ne didn't see his legs anywhere.

Looking around further, Frisk saw a relatively clean space, a row of counters against a wall, and something tall covered by a white drape in the corner. In another corner, Papyrus was sitting on a chair, watching nir as ne scanned the room, and nearby was a door that seemed to be the only way in and out of the room. There were no windows that Frisk could see, and ne sighed, ready to go back to sleep. Ne didn't know what was going on but ne was so tired, ne felt like ne could sleep for days, and if it was safe ne wouldn't mind doing just that until Sans told nir it was time to get up.

Frisk's eyes snapped wide, zeroing in on where Papyrus sat, and ne flushed with embarrassment as ne realized that he was amused. Ne had no idea how he had done it, but the bone where his eyebrow would have been if he had skin had lifted up and there was a smirking quality to his lip-less teeth.

Frisk wasn't sure how ne knew, but Papyrus' eyes darted to where Sans was lying, or sitting Frisk still wasn't sure, before he looked back into Frisk's eyes. One gloved hand came up, a finger making the universal shush motion. Ne swallowed, nir throat dry before nodding, nir fingers reflexively tightening around Sans' where his hand was laying on nir chest.

Papyrus was watching closely and Frisk felt a nervous fluttering somewhere in nir belly. This was Sans' beloved brother, but there was also something about him that was very scary, even scarier than Doggo. Sighing and trying to calm the angry butterflies that had taken up residence in nir belly, Frisk looked down to Sans, before frowning.

Even dead asleep he looked exhausted, and there was an odd blue tint to his cheekbones. Even while Frisk was watching, ne felt his bony fingers twitch in nirs, and Frisk smiled, sad and worried at the same time. Whatever had happened, he was at the end of his endurance, and ne could only hope it didn't have anything to do with nir.

Fisk looked back up to Papyrus, and his hawk like focus on nir, and ne bit nir lip, trying to ask what had happened, but Papyrus only shook his head minutely.

Frisk wanted to sigh as ne tried to relax again, since there was nothing to do now but wait, but something told nir it would be a bad idea to do anything that had even the slightest possibility of waking Sans up.

* * *

It had been one thing to watch while the human had been unconscious, watching as it struggled to breathe, and coaching his brother on how to help the human recover from it's illness. It was strange how something with such a hardy physical body was so susceptible to such little things as temperature, but if Sans was right it had been the extreme cold of the blizzard that had made the human ill to begin with.

Papyrus had, at Sans' request, retrieved medicine and food for the human. It had been an interesting experience watching Sans administer both to his... friend, but it had gotten inside the human where it seemed to have done a world of good. The human had still been unconscious though as it's body recovered, apparently needing more than just magic to make itself well. Sans had been sitting vigil beside his bed, where he had kept the human.

Papyrus had suggested moving it up into the house, since there were beds in the upstairs bedrooms, but a dark look from Sans had quelled that suggestion.

It was strange and disconcerting to realize that his brother really was protective of the human.

It had been obvious when Sans had kept him from killing it, hell it had been obvious when he found out that Sans had hidden the human down in his own sanctuary. Papyrus was always expecting attacks, to an extent he invited them. He didn't have the highest defense, but he was quite strong enough to take all challengers, and anyone who challenged him knew what they were getting into.

Anyone who broke the rules he set down for Snowdin and the surrounding area knew the consequences.

Sans was different, and always had been. He didn't have enough health to engage in the fights and brawls that Papyrus enjoyed. It was good, knowing that he had enough power that he would never be helpless again, but Sans would never have that. His brother had needed to gain experience in order to protect him, but he had never wanted that power for himself despite having been through many of the same things as Papyrus.

His brother had gotten the EXP and LOVE he needed in order to protect Papyrus before Papyrus had been able to protect himself. Because of him, Sans could never have hugs or even friendly handshakes without killing who he was trying to befriend. Even Papyrus couldn't touch his brother, even though monsters of the same family usually had the same kinds of magic.

Papyrus found himself smirking as he thought about it. For the most part, he and Sans used the same attacks, the same base type of magic, even up to being able to summon skeletal blasters at dire need, but Sans always seemed to break the general 'rules' of being a monster. First with that Teleportation magic, and then his Karmic Poison.

The human's hand held his brothers bones, its fingers making idle movements on Sans' frail bones, and Papyrus found himself holding in a sigh. Even after all these years, that would be sure to awaken his brother, and Sans had already looked to be in bad shape before Papyrus had arrived to help. Sans said that the reason the human wasn't getting poisoned by his ability was because it had no EXP or LOVE at all. The complete lack of desire to do harm was unheard of, but this human seemed to fit the bill.

Quietly, Papyrus got up to head to the kitchen in the house upstairs. Sans didn't sleep much, and when he did it was never for long enough. Some good, homemade fettuccine would be just the thing to perk him up when he awoke, and who knew? Maybe Sans' pet human would like it as well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How in the heck did Sans keep Papyrus from capturing or killing Frisk? 
> 
> Wouldn't we all like to know. (well I know, I wrote it... it just might not come up unless people are really interested. Guessing is encouraged.)


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Frisk awakens. Papyrus cooked. Frisk is expected to eat it. 
> 
> Sans finds out something a little strange.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Five Comments filled me with Determination! This chapter is just a little longer than usual.

The first thing Sans sensed when he woke up was Papyrus' fettuccine, it had a very distinct smell. His brother was amazing, the coolest ever, but his cooking had a distinctive smell. And texture. And taste.

The second thing was the music. He couldn't hear it all the time, just when he was on the edge between being asleep or awake, or if he was really out of it. Music was the best way to describe it, though it was more than just that, it was like he was listening to a far off song that was meant just for him. It was different this time, when he listened, like there were two songs this time. One really close, sweet and gentle with a core of unshakable strength, and the other further way, stronger and at the same time more fragile.

The music faded as Sans groaned, his bones clacking as he sat up. It was amazing how without any muscles or tendons, he could still feel so stiff from sleeping the wrong way. Something warm tightened on his hand, and Sans blinked blearily at the human laying on his bed before a bright grin lit up his face.

“Hey kiddo. Feeling better?” Sans asked, and Frisk nodded, no longer looking bright red, or worse blue. Once he had secured Papyrus' help, his little brother had a bit to say about what the proper color of humans was.

“Yea. Thank you for helping me,” ne said, and Sans fought down the blush that tried to light up his face.

“No problem kid,” Sans stated, leaning back and stretching, briefly regretting pulling his boney fingers out of Frisk's grip, and the human sat up, stretching as well. “Do I smell my amazing brother's cooking?”

“YES, YOU DO. I PRESUMED THAT WHEN YOU AWAKENED YOU WOULD LIKELY BE HUNGRY, SO I MADE A FRESH POT OF MY FAMOUS FETTUCCINE, THE NOODLES AGED IN A FINE OAK CASK, WITH MY SPECIAL SNAIL AND POTTED MEAT SURPRISE SAUCE,” Papyrus stated and Sans looked up to where his brother had placed three plates on the counter.

“Thank's bro, you always make the most interesting fettuccine,” Sans said with a grin, pulling himself to his feet with effort, and his brother made a noise of dismissal.

“YOU SHOULD HAVE PUSHED THE HUMAN OVER SO THERE WAS ROOM FOR YOU TO SLEEP PROPERLY,” Papyrus stated with a sneer in Frisk's direction, and Sans flinched a little. He had secured his brother's help, but he had a feeling that Papyrus really didn't like Frisk at all.

“Sans, he's... he's right you know. I'm fairly small so it wouldn't have been an issue...” Sans turned to the human, feeling slightly betrayed that ne had taken Papyrus' side. There was a slight flush on their face and Sans frowned, distracted, and he reached out hesitantly to check how hot they were the way Papyrus had shown him while Frisk was unconscious.

The human's face turned just a little more red, and Sans frowned. Ne wasn't too hot, but Frisk had only just woken up for the first time in three days.

“THE HUMAN IS FINE SANS, THAT'S A BLUSH,” Papyrus stated, and Sans glanced over to see that his brother was rolling his eyes.

“Wow, bro. You know a lot,” Sans stated, grinning brightly even as he pushed down the tiny nugget of panic.

“YES, I DO. NOW, IT'S TIME TO EAT. SIT DOWN ON ONE SIDE OF THE BED,” Papyrus instructed, and Sans complied as Papyrus bought over two of the plates of Fettuccine.

“Thank's bro,” Sans stated, accepting the plate Papyrus handed him, even as Frisk more hesitantly accepted the plate handed to nir.

Papyrus returned to the counter to get his own plate before sitting down in the chair. The silence as they ate was almost a physical presence in the room, and Sans ate slowly. True to style, the taste and texture of Papyrus' cooking was unique, and Sans took a few sips of hot sauce to wash down some of the thicker bites.

It was mean, but he smirked as he heard Frisk get up the courage to eat the first bite. The smell took a bit of getting used to, but the taste was actually kinda good.

* * *

Frisk looked at the plate in nir lap, stomach rolling at the odor emanating from the pile of green and white noodles covered in brown sludge. The same exact thing was on Sans' plate, and Frisk wondered how he was managing to get it down, although drinking hot sauce like water probably helped kill all of his taste buds.

If he had taste buds at least, and Frisk frowned, thinking about that for a moment as ne wondered how he was eating the food. His jacket was open, and he wasn't wearing a t-shirt or anything underneath it, so Frisk could clearly see that he didn't have a stomach, or a throat, or, well, anything that Frisk had come to think of as necessary in order to eat.

Ne still couldn't see where the food was going when he took his bites.

Swallowing nir gag reflex, Frisk lifted the first fork full to nir lips and took a bite. It was like trying to eat pure death, and Frisk knew ne made a face at the taste and texture.

The only reason ne didn't spit it out was because ne had been raised not to waste food. In a large family like Frisk's, there was never quite enough to go around, but all the hunger in the world wasn't going to make this dish good. Ne looked up at where Papyrus was sitting eating his own plate, a narrow eyed glare on his features as he watched Frisk, and ne steeled nir nerves, reaching the fork down to get another bite.

If nothing else, Papyrus probably wasn't trying to intentionally poison nir, and if he wanted nir dead he seemed more like the kind of person to do it directly. It was a depressing thought, but musing on it managed to let Frisk get halfway through the plate before ne had to stop eating.

“I guess you're appetite isn't back yet,” Sans said, and Frisk nodded, smiling and grateful for the excuse to stop eating.

“Not really. I don't feel hungry at all,” Frisk stated, looking down at nir half empty plate. Was the sauce eating the ceramic? Frisk decided no it wasn't, those pockmarks in the smooth surface had to come from something else.

“I'm sure your appetite will come back when you can get up and start moving around again,” Sans stated with a shrug, and Frisk nodded.

“ABOUT THAT,” Papyrus interjected, and both Frisk and Sans looked up to where he was sitting, his own plate of food empty. “YOU'LL HAVE TO BE CAREFUL, BUT IF YOU STAY IN SNOWDIN, I'M CERTAIN YOU WON'T RUN INTO AS MUCH TROUBLE. THE REAL QUESTION IS, SHOULD YOU BE ALLOWED TO WANDER AROUND FREELY. WHAT PROOF DO I HAVE THAT YOU WON'T END UP KILLING MONSTERS LIKE ALL THE OTHER HUMANS?”

Sans started to say something, but Papyrus cut him off with a glare, and Frisk steeled nirself, looking down at nir plate as ne tried to think of a way to prove to Papyrus that ne wasn't going to hurt anyone.

“Violence is never the answer. No matter how hard the puzzle or how bad the situation, hurting others is never the right thing to do. 'Mercy until mercy isn't an option anymore, then run.' That's what my Granther always said, and I believe it with everything in me,” Frisk stated, looking up and into Papyrus' eyes.

“Heh, you're crazy kid,” Sans stated, shaking his head, and Frisk chuckled before shaking nir head.

“Not really, my whole family thought the same way,” Frisk trailed off, sadness in nir voice. Ne didn't even know if anyone else had made it to safety, or what had happened after the raid.

“AN ADMIRABLE SENTIMENT I SUPPOSE, BUT NOT ONE CONDUCIVE TO SURVIVING IN THE UNDERGROUND,” Papyrus said, and Frisk flushed again. “AT THE SAME TIME, IF I FIND YOU YOU'VE KILLED A SINGLE MONSTER, OR EVEN RAISED A HAND TO FIGHT THEM, I'LL DESTROY YOU AND DELIVER YOUR SOUL TO THE KING.”

Frisk shivered at the force in his voice, but nodded, setting nir chin in a determined fashion.

“My bro is so cool,” Sans said, grinning brightly, and Frisk glanced at him, one eyebrow raising as ne wondered why he said that. “He's giving you a chance Frisk. That's more than any other human has ever gotten around here. Usually humans with souls are taken straight to the King, and trust me, you don't want that.”

He looked haunted as he said it, and Frisk frowned in sympathy, reaching out to pat him on the shoulder supportively.

“You know... Papyrus is pretty cool,” Frisk stated, grinning mischievously. “But I know a skeleton that's even cooler.”

“WHAT?” Sans' voice was drowned out by Papyrus saying the same thing at the same time, and there was a shocked look on both their faces, and suspicion on Papyrus' as well.

“You Sans,” Frisk stated, laughing. It was hard not to, and although there was a thread of fear because of the look on Papyrus' face, it was so amusing to see the shock written all over both of them.

Sans blushed bright blue, his jacket floofing out again as he bought his hands up to ineffectively cover his face, but Papyrus just looked thoughtful for a moment before nodding.

“You can't say that kid, I'm nowhere near as cool as my bro...” Sans started, before Papyrus cut him off.

“HUMAN, YOU HAVE EXCELLENT TASTE, AND I THINK THE SAME THING,” he stated as he got up. Before Frisk realized what he was doing, he had taken Sans' empty plate and Frisk's half full plate, stacking them together with his own empty plate as he left the room, closing the door behind him.

Frisk smiled as Sans' jacket floofed once more, his blue blush glowing brightly even through the boney fingers he had covering his face. Frisk giggled, before yawning. Laying in bed wasn't getting anything done, and even though Frisk felt lethargic, ne had been sick before and knew that getting up and moving around would help.

There was also something that smelled bad, and since Papyrus had taken the leftover fettuccine away, Frisk had a feeling it was nir. Lifting nir arm, ne took an experimental sniff and realized that yes, that stink was coming from nir.

“Uhm... Sans?” the skeleton looked up, lowering his hands slightly so that he could look at Frisk. Even the top of his head was kinda blue. “Is there any way I can get... cleaned up? I'm beginning to smell.”

“Huh? I thought that was just the way humans smelled,” Sans stated, before his eye sockets widened again and he covered his face. “Just... ignore that, sorry. Yea, we've got a shower in the house upstairs. It's kinda dangerous to get in there though.”

Frisk thought about it for a moment before horror dawned on nir.

“You run a gauntlet of traps to get to the bathroom?” Frisk knew nir voice sounded incredulous, but Sans started laughing.

“No, the traps are calibrated not to attack me or my bro, since we live here. It keeps other monsters from trying to ambush us, though we check for them anyways. We always know someone tried when we find a pile of Dust in the traps,” Sans stated, grinning as his blush finally faded and he lowered his hands. “I'll guide you through them and re-calibrate the remaining ones to your unique magical signature so you can come and go like us.”

“Is that how calibrating the puzzles works?” Frisk asked as ne hauled nirself to nir feet.

“Yep. Gotta do it every few days or the calibrations fade and the puzzle will activate even for whoever set it. Kinda hard to stay alive when your own creations are trying to kill you when you need to repair them,” Sans grinned as he said it, and Frisk shook nir head sadly.

Everyone was so casual about trying to kill each other down here, and it was incredibly sad. Very little was like Granther's stories, the stories about monsters that had been handed down from one generation to the next in Frisk's family. There had been stories about good and kind creatures who had lived and worked alongside humans in ancient times, and other creatures who lived in the woods away from humans but were still kind. Then the war had broken out, and the 'Great Mages' had driven the Monsters underground.

Frisk thought about it as Sans recalibrated the puzzles on the stairs so that ne could go up, about the history classes in school that said Monsters were horrendous abominations filled with blood lust and wanting to eat human souls. Even if monsters did want human souls though, it was no different than the Mages. Frisk was old enough and responsible enough, and Granther had told nir what happened to the chosen acolytes that the Mages took aside every year who disappeared into the Castle on Mount Ebbot.

“Alright, it should be safe to come up now,” Sans stated, and Frisk nodded, heading for the stairs.

Knowing the difference between what ne had been taught, and what ne had seen since coming to the underground, filled Frisk with Determination.

* * *

Sans rummaged around in the pile of clean laundry for something for Frisk to wear when ne got out of the shower. He didn't have a lot of options, but he grabbed his spare jacket, which was black, and a pair of black shorts for the human, and on thought also added a few socks from his collection. Knee highs, though they were from different sets, one black with red polka dots, and the other neon green with frilly yellow lace up the back. If nothing else they were the warmest looking socks in the collection. Since the shorts were long on him, they would probably be long on the human too, and he hoped that the waist would fit.

It had a drawstring so he could keep it over his pelvis bones, but the human was proportioned quite differently, with skin and muscle. Which was weird, but humans had less magic than Skeletons and so presumably needed the extra bits to move their skeletons around.

The bathroom was attached to the back of the kitchen, and could only be gotten to through a hidden door under the sink. Frisk had laughed at that, and been confused that something called a 'toilet' was missing. Sans had been confused and grossed out by Frisk's explanation, though Sans had a feeling the human was yanking his chain. Why would humans eat inefficient food that couldn't be completely converted to magic and used by the body? There had also been a sly look in Frisk's face, and ne had laughed when Sans expressed his disgust at the idea.

“Hey kid, I'm coming in!” Sans stated, with a cursory knock on the door.

“Wait, don't...!” Frisk called out, ducking back behind the shower curtain. “I'm naked!”

“Yea, that's why I bought clean clothes,” Sans stated, mildly confused. Nudity wasn't a big deal with most monsters, and he set the clothes down on a bench Papyrus had put in specifically for that purpose.

“No, I'm Naked! It's not right!”

“What, because I'm a guy, or because...?”

“No... well, a little. I'm... different,” Frisk stated, huddling low in the tub with the curtain pulled all the way around nir. “I'm not a boy or a girl. Or well... technically I've got bits for both but... oh god...”

Sans didn't laugh, though he half wanted to at the way he saw the silhouette of Frisk's head duck down on nir knees.

“Alright. It's fine. Technically I'm not a dude anyways, none of the guy bits that other types of monsters have,” Sans said with a shrug.

“But... Papyrus calls you his brother,” Frisk started, before trailing off and Sans did smile at that.

“Well yea, but that's because we feel like brothers,” he said with a shrug. “So... if you've got bits for both, I guess you want a t-shirt or something to wear under the jacket.”

“Yes please... if you've got one I can borrow... please?” Frisk asked, and Sans finally let out a chuckle.

“If I don't, I'll steal one from Papyrus. I'm pretty sure he wouldn't mind, he's got a whole closet of clothing even though he almost never wears anything but his armor. I'll be right back.”

With that, Sans headed back out of the bathroom and upstairs. When he got back, with a red t-shirt he thought would go better with the outfit than all the black ones with rude slogans on them that Papyrus had, he once more knocked before walking straight in.

Frisk shrieked again, and Sans covered the sides of his head where he heard things from.

“Sheesh kid, it's just me,” Sans stated, rolling his eyes.

“I'm still half naked,” Frisk said, blushing deeply. Ne was wearing the socks and shorts, and had a towel wrapped under nir arms for their top. Sans' eyes were drawn to the brightly colored bandages wrapping nir arms though, the purple one fully done and secured on Frisk's left forearm, and a blue one half done up on nir right arm. 

When Frisk saw Sans looking, ne moved to cover nir right arm and blushed even darker.

“Frisk, are you... hurt?” Sans asked, stepping forward, but Frisk shook nir head.

“No.. no I'm fine. It's birthmarks, and since anyone with abnormal marks or scars is considered ugly, I usually keep them covered,” Frisk stated, and while it sounded half true, it also sounded a little bit like a lie. Sans got the feeling that Frisk was really bad at lying.

“It looked like writing, kid,” Sans stated, his chest tightening. Was it like a bar code or a brand? Or was it really something a bit more benign.

“Not any kind of writing humans have ever seen,” there was a bitterness in Frisk's voice, and Sans frowned, moving forward despite the human tensing as he approached.

It was hesitant, and he moved slowly, but Frisk didn't pull away as he pulled nir into a hug as gently as he could.

“It's okay kid,” he said, and Frisk nodded although Sans didn't think ne believed him. “The bit I saw looked familiar, may I look at it?” which was an understatement. It wasn't familiar, it looked like it was written in Hands, and if it was Sans really wanted to know why.

It took several minutes, and Frisk nodded, before pulling away.

“But first let me put a shirt on,” ne said, and Sans laughed at nir deep blush.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, I did a lot of research on what constitutes intersex, which I found out was the proper term for the type of Frisk I wanted to create. If anyone is upset or unhappy about it, go ahead and let me know, but I'm not going to promise to do anything about it. In the society that Frisk grew up in, it's considered a bad thing, so Frisk doesn't advertise. The only ones who used the gender neutral pronouns on the surface were Frisk's family, and Frisk prefers the gender neutral pronouns. At school and mandatory events, and to the rest of the country, Frisk is considered female and has thus far managed to stay away from pesky doctors who would have nir put in for a mandatory surgery to correct the aberrations. yes, most humans above ground suck. That's the way I wrote it. I honestly didn't expect it to come up in the story though... oops.. o.o
> 
> Monsters already had the gender neutral pronouns because what exactly do you classify a Moldsmol or Moldybyg as? Let alone some of the others. 
> 
> Whether you like it or hate it, let me know please?


	14. Exploring Snowdin

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Frisk finds out what one of the names on nir arms is, and then Sans takes nir for a walk around town.

Dressed and fully clothed, including putting nir own boots back on over the large socks that Sans had given nir, Frisk followed Sans out of the house and back around the back into the secret door that led down to Sans' private area. Frisk didn't see much from nir trek around the house, and the pressure to move on hadn't built back up yet so ne wanted to explore as soon as ne got the chance.

First though, ne was going to show nir Soul Marks to Sans.

The only reason Frisk knew what they were was because Granther had explained it at the same time ne had told Frisk why the marks had to stay covered and no one else could see them. They were a sign or magic, and unusual marks were reported to the Mages. Not directly of course, but doctors would tell the city bureau, and it would be put in Frisk's record, which would then get taken to a panel of judges, and since it had to do with magic it would then get passed up to the Acolyte council, and then the Mages would know.

If the Mages knew, Frisk would get taken and disappear into the depths of Halsey Castle on Mt Ebbot.

This wasn't the Mages though, or even other school kids or doctors, this was Sans, and he might recognize the marks well enough to read them. Even though Granther had said that with the world the way it was, it was better not to know what the marks said, Frisk still wanted to know. Ne had looked up every book with foreign writing in it that ne could get nir hands on, and the markings on nir arms didn't look like any of them. Of course, Frisk had been careful, because ne didn't want to get in trouble for showing too much interest in foreign places, but ne had dreamed that maybe nir soul mates were in the far off places of Europe or Asia. If Frisk studied diligently enough ne might be able to get a visa and study abroad some day.

That would definitely never happen now, Frisk knew, so this was nir last and best chance to find out about the soul markings.

When they reached the bottom of the long staircase, Frisk was slightly out of breath but Sans seemed agitated and impatient. It took nir a moment to get up the courage to pull off the jacket that Sans had lent nir, the ingrained need to keep people from seeing was pretty strong. Even Frisk's siblings didn't know about the markings, Granther had said it was too dangerous. They thought that the bandages that Frisk wore were a brightly colored fashion statement, a child's bit of rebellion when it came to the rules and structure that society placed on nir.

“Come on kid,” Sans said soothingly as ne set the jacket down on the clean counter. Despite wanting to know what the marking said, Frisk was still shaking as ne fiddled with the part of the bandage that was tucked in and keeping it in place. “I... It looked like it was written in Hands, kid. I'm pretty sure there's only two monsters who can still read Hands, and I'm one of them.”

“What... what exactly is hands?” Frisk asked curiously, the fact that Sans' answer would give nir a few more moments to work up nir nerve enough to remove the bandage was only a bonus.

Sans for his part grinned, and started moving his hands, and there was something about his face that was changing. All Frisk heard though was a low buzz that felt like it was in the back of nir ears, and ne frowned, wondering what Sans was doing.

He laughed at nir after a moment, before shaking his head.

“It's called Hands for a reason kid, there's no audible component, just magic, expression, and hands,” as he spoke the last word he held his hands up and wiggled them in the universal jazz hands expression.

“Oh, so like sign language then? Only... with magic,” Frisk frowned thinking about it. “I wonder if that makes it easier to understand, or get complex concepts across faster.”

“Sign language? Humans are weird. Yea, complex concepts are kind of what the language was made for, as far as I know. Even in the written form, a lot of information can be conveyed in a very small amount of space,” Sans grinned, before looking down at Frisk's arm. “If you really don't want to kid, it's okay.”

“No... no I really want to know what the mark says. Granther said that it was a soul mark, so it's... well the markings are probably names. I... even if I never meet them, I think I really want to know the names of my soul mates,” Frisk smiled, though it didn't feel firm on nir face. Even though nir fingers started shaking again as ne pulled the first bandage off, the blue one since that was the one Sans had seen before.

Holding the blue bandage in nir left hand, Frisk held out nir right arm towards Sans, unable to look up at him as ne did. Ne didn't want him to look at it and say he couldn't translate it, that would hurt too much.

Sans was quiet, and Frisk finally got up the nerve to look at him.

He looked both angry and shocked, and Frisk whimpered as ne pulled nir arm away. He didn't let nir though, his hand darting out faster than Frisk could move and clasping onto nir wrist.

“This isn't some kind of sick fucking joke, is it?” he demanded, his left eye lighting up bright blue, an eyeball wreathed in writhing sapphire fire.

“Nn... NO!” Frisk stated, angry that he would accuse nir of making some kind of joke about something as serious and potentially as deadly as a soul mark. “It's been there as long as I've been alive, they both have. My parents had to hide that as much as they had to hide... the... the gender thing...” Frisk flushed with embarrassment at bringing it up, looking down. “Soul marks aren't normal. If your not normal, you don't fit in. If you don't fit in, your checked by the Mages. If they find out you have magic, you have to become an acolyte and serve at Halsey Castle. If you don't go willingly as an acolyte, you go as a prisoner.”

The thought of going to Halsey Castle in any way was terrifying, but especially as a prisoner or acolyte. Both disappeared and were rarely seen again.

“Shit, kid,” Sans said, finally releasing Frisk's wrist and stepping back. Frisk immediately started wrapping the bandage over the mark again, embarrassed and angry with the way Sans had reacted. “Shit... what happens at this Halsey Castle to make you so scared?”

Frisk hesitated, the old pain of being different mixing with the fresh fears about what had happened when nir family's home had been raided. Even if anyone else had escaped, most of nir family had probably been taken prisoners.

“No one knows for sure, but Granther said that those with magic are conditioned to serve the mages. Those without magic aren't usually seen again. Most of them aren't seen again, but everyone, teachers at school and the tv, say that serving as an acolyte is better. I don't know what actually happens, but, well Granther had stories,” Frisk sighed, moving to sit down at the foot of the mattress and drawing nir knees up to nir chest and resting nir head on them. “Granther said that the Mages drained the heart and soul out of people. Every human is born with a soul Sans, but Asriel said that most humans who end up in the underground don't have souls.”

Sans made a strangled, choking noise, and Frisk looked up, before letting the frown fall off nir face and moving over to Sans. Frisk wrapped nir arms around him, drawing him into a hug, and he gripped back tightly, shaking.

He looked horrified, and Frisk wasn't sure why.

“Kid... Kid, why would they do that? Why would they steal the souls of other humans? Humans can't absorb human souls, just like monsters can't absorb monster souls... right?” Sans' voice was shaking, and Frisk felt the tears flowing down nir own face.

“Magic. Even humans with magic don't generate much of it, but a soul... Granther said that a soul could generate a lot of magic,” Frisk stated, sighing. “Sans... why did you get angry at... at my soul mark?”

Sans laughed, but it was a slightly manic sound as he pulled away from Frisk and went to the counter. From a drawer he produced a piece of paper and with a flourish, wrote the exact symbols that were on Frisk's right arm.

“◙►Ö◙,” Frisk got a sense of the word as he used the strange language of 'Hands' to 'say' it, and it felt like a good word, something positive and upbeat with a sense of humor. “I don't usually write it that way, not anymore. It translates to 'Comic Sans.”

* * *

Snowdin turned out to be, for the most part, a normal looking town. The monsters weren't that different in attitude from the people in the village Frisk had grown up in, secular and looking after only their own. A key difference was that there were fights, all the time. The magic was always flying as monsters attacked each other for some reason or another, though Frisk noticed they weren't fighting to the death. One or the other always yielded when they had been beaten into submission.

A few of the monsters who had spotted Frisk had approached, obviously with the intent to fight, but Sans had stepped in front of Frisk each time and glared the offending monster down.

It was strange, and Frisk found nemself looking at Sans in a new way, now that ne knew it was his name on nir wrist. He was definitely older than nir, and he usually seemed so sad and tired. He seemed even sadder after finding out about Frisk's soul mark, and had even asked nir more about the human world. Frisk had explained the good things about nir home, and nir family. Ne had told him about nir brothers and sisters, all packed into a little three bedroom house, snug and comfortable, and Granther and the cousins.

He had smiled about that, though he had frowned when Frisk went on to tell him about the village, two miles down the lane from the land that Frisk's family worked. With the school and the clothing shop, the clinic and the food outlet, and the temple.

For the most part though, Frisk was freaked out and excited in a happy way. Ne had never considered the fact that ne might actually meet one of nir soulmates. Sans hadn't been able to read the other name, since it was written in a different language or dialect, but he had tried and it had been a kindness that Frisk treasured.

Then they had gone on a tour of the town, and as normal as it looked, with everyone minding their own business in a secular sort of manner, there was a horrifying center piece that made Frisk feel ill to nir stomach. In the center of the town, right past where they had entered the town during the storm actually, was a grisly center piece. It was a human body that had been impaled by a dozen bones and left atop a pile of more human remains. From how smooth they were, the bones impaling the body looked like they were made of magic, but there were older bones as well, pockmarked with age and covered in the tatters of rotting flesh and clothing. While the scraps of cloth in the pile of bones were for the most part faded to a universal grayish brown, the body still impaled above the pile was wearing a yellow sun dress liberally splattered with dust and blood.

The monsters had walked past the grisly monument with something akin to pride, although most of them skirted it, staying several feet away. Frisk had felt sick, whimpering as ne moved until Sans was between nir and the body on display.

“So... I guess that is in bad taste...” Sans said after a moment, looking distinctly ill despite being a magical skeleton. “They... they had souls at some point...”

“Yes... every human is born with a soul...” Frisk stated quietly, whimpering as ne buried nir head against Sans' arm. “What happened to make them... not monsters. Monsters have souls, those humans were turned into abominations. It wasn't their fault though.”

Sans was startled at the tone of nir voice, and to be honest Frisk was as well. It was bitter and hateful, and there was something in Frisk that was new and frightening, welling up in nir heart and closing in on nir stomach like an iron fist.

“Come on kid, let's get something to eat at Grilbys,” Sans said, and Frisk nodded, that horrible feeling in nir heart and stomach fading as they walked away from the grisly spectacle that was the town's centerpiece.

They didn't quite make it to the nearby bar though, because there was an angry monster in a striped sweater baring their way.

“Halt Human! I don't know what you've done to bewitch the Amazing Papyrus, but I will not allow you to follow through on your dastardly Plans!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well this certainly took longer to write than I thought it would... O.o ... anyways, feel free to guess who the angry monster at the end is (unless you already know XD in which case, feel free to gloat)
> 
> Also... just realized it's about damn time I got around to showing Frisk's soul marks and exploring who they belong to. I've intended it from the very start of the story but wow... O.o finally.


	15. Making Friends

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Battle of the Ages!

The monster standing between them and Grillby’s had no arms, and a fairly large head all things considered. A row of spikes started above nir eyes and went back from there, the front most spike flopping over like it was bangs. Nir skin was pebbly and dark yellow, and ne was the same height as Frisk. Ne was wearing some kind of sweater, but it had no arms, and there were black and gray horizontal stripes, with a white skull on the front that looked remarkably like Papyrus' face, as well as dark pants and fairly large shoes.

“Yo! Did you hear me? I'm not going to let a human just wander around freely!” The angry monster said, and Frisk smiled even though ne could see that the monster was shaking.

“Kid, back off,” Sans started, looking annoyed, but the monster cut him off.

“No! It's got you bewitched somehow too! Humans are evil, dude! Just a few weeks ago one of those things was running around here killing monsters!” the angry monster growled, bracing before charging forward towards Frisk, clearly with the intent to attack.

Frisk gasped as nir soul was pulled into a battle, and Frisk managed to dodge the first volley of fire, but not the blow from the whip like tail that came after. Thankfully ne didn't get too hurt, but it made dodging the next few attacks all the harder. Then Sans stepped in.

“Alright Kid, that's enough. Frisk isn't...”

Kid cried out as fire went astray while Sans walked into the battle field, and for one horrifying moment all Frisk could see behind nir eyes was Sans crumbling to dust in nir arms. Frisk didn't even know ne could move as fast as ne did to get between Sans and the fire, but ne managed to push the skeleton out of the way, and in doing so, got hit right in the soul with the fire directly.

* * *

Sans fumed, glaring at the pile of human remains that was the town's centerpiece, before turning towards where Frisk stood shaking.

“I could have shooed MK off,” he stated, glaring at the human who only stared back at him, a stubborn look set on nir face. “Just let me tell the little punk to get lost this time.”

“No. Sans, just... please, no?” Despite the determined set to nir features, a haunted look flickered across Frisk's face. “Sans, you almost got killed again. Please let me handle it? I'm getting pretty good at dodging and I know I'll be able to get him to back down.”

“Nir, not him. Monster Kid's gender neutral,” Sans corrected automatically, before sighing. “Look, MK is a good kid, but ne's pretty enthusiastic about fighting a human. Ne really looks up to Papyrus, and with good reason, and I'm pretty sure ne's not going to back down.”

“Ne's scared Sans,” Frisk stated simply, and Sans was surprised for a moment, wondering how Frisk could tell before mentally berating himself. Frisk knew, somehow Frisk knew with all the monsters ne encountered, including himself and Papyrus. “I'll get through to nir, I promise. Just, please, please stay out of it.”

“Only for you, Frisk,” Sans said with a sigh, after several tense moments just staring into those determined gray eyes. “Do you still want to attempt Grillby's, or should we head home instead?”

“Grillby's,” Frisk said decisively, and Sans sighed, leading the kid once more in the right direction.

When Monster Kid called out again to stop them, Sans stepped back obligingly and let Frisk do nir own thing. The human kid had guts, that was for sure, and was doing pretty good at dodging out of the way well enough that ne only took minimal damage, but MK was indeed relentless.

MK was also really good at attacking, but it threw nir off when ne attacked physically and Frisk managed to dodge. Twice ne had fallen flat on nir face, knocking down small chunks of nir own HP and ne had lashed out at Frisk with nir prehensile tail when the human tried to help nir up. Frisk had lost plenty of HP each time, though Sans was fairly sure that MK hadn't made the connection that Frisk was trying to help nir up and thus leaving nemself open to attack.

Two more times, Sans ended up staring at the macabre pile of human remains and since there wasn't anything left to say, Sans just started walking towards Grillby's. Since it was on the way home anyways, even if they decided to head back to the skeletons' house, they would still end up encountering MK.

Then, halfway through the fight, when both Frisk and MK had about half health, Papyrus showed up.

“SANS? WHAT ON EARTH IS GOING ON?” he demanded, and MK was startled enough to lose nir balance, once more falling on nir face and losing a small chunk of hp.

“Kid is upset at Frisk for being here, because Frisk is a human,” Sans explained, trying with motions to shush his brother.

“WHY IS KID'S HEALTH SO LOW? I'M ENDING THIS NOW!” Papyrus stated, wading into the fight with predictable results. Kid's attack hit the larger skeleton, much to Frisk's shock, and Frisk cried out in fear even as Papyrus turned to Kid with a glare, and the young monster visibly paled and started shaking.

Even as Papyrus' first attack hit kid, Sans felt the world fading and was soon holding Frisk as ne cried against him.

“What... kid, what's wrong?” Sans asked, confused.

“Why.. oh gods why would Papyrus attack nir and not me...” Frisk sobbed, and Sans made soothing sounds for a moment, rubbing circles in Frisk's back.

“Frisk, MK could take it, and I swear Papyrus isn't going to kill MK,” he stated, and Frisk shook nir head. “Listen, kid, it's ok. Papyrus trains MK, and MK really looks up to him. Ne might even be my bro's second biggest fan.”

“That makes it even worse! Sans no. MK was scared, and when someone you trust hits you instead of who you think you're defending yourself from it's even worse,” Frisk was adamant, although Sans really didn't see what the problem was.

“Kid was out of line, ne wasn't supposed to attack you anyways,” Sans said decisively.

“Sans, no!” Frisk said again, that look of sheer determination once more sliding into place on nir face, and Sans sighed, running one hand over the smooth top of his skull.

“Shit, kid,” he stated, before grinning. “The sun and the stars, right?”

Frisk looked surprised for a moment, before smiling and nodding.

“It's not worth it otherwise,” ne stated and Sans chuckled as they headed back to make another attempt for Grillby's.

* * *

Frisk thought ne was doing fairly well, all things considered. Three more tries, and Sans had somehow managed to keep Papyrus out of the fight, and Frisk was getting better and better at dodging MK's attacks four more tries in.

The only downside was that the longer the fight went on the more MK seemed to be falling down, and it was obvious that ne was as exhausted as Frisk was. Frisk's soul had been hit plenty of times, and ne knew that the damage taken on nir soul had manifested all over nir body in sluggish movements and weary muscles, as well as cuts and scrapes.

“Just give up, yo!” MK finally shouted, panting with nir own exertion and even though Frisk would have thought it was far too cold, sweat was dripping down the monster's exposed face.

“As long as you promise not to kill me,” Frisk stated with a wink and a grin, flirting for all ne was worth since it seemed to be the best way to get through to MK, not to mention that ne was pretty cute.

MK blushed brightly, before breathing a volley of flames towards Frisk, but the attack wasn't as strong this time, and Frisk managed to dodge and keep what little health ne had left intact.

“Humans are evil, yo! Everyone knows that! So why aren't you fighting back?” MK demanded, and Frisk grinned, shaking nir head.

“Because I don't believe in fighting,” Frisk stated, carefully dodging away from Kid's spike covered tail. “Mercy until mercy is no longer an option, and then run.”

“C... C'mon, that's a goofy motto dude,” MK stated, striking out with nir tail again, and when Frisk dodged, MK fell on nir side with a grunt, taking scrapes for nir troubles.

“Let me help you up?” Frisk offered, and for the first time when Frisk approached ne didn't lash out, and Frisk helped nir to nir feet before backing off again.

“Why... why are you so... nice?” MK said, visibly shaken, and Frisk wasn't sure if ne was getting even more tired or if ne was seeing sense but the volley of fire that MK sent nir way was definitely weaker and much easier to dodge.

Frisk was confused by the question though, and didn't bother hiding it. “Because it's the right thing.”

MK looked frustrated, and ne yelled even as ne gave one last wild swing of nir tail towards Frisk before tipping over onto nir face again. Ne didn't even try to get up, and Frisk hurried over, panicking and worried about MK before realizing that the monster was trying to curl into nemself and crying.

“What's wrong? Are you ok? I have some spider cider if you want it? Monster food helps heal injuries, right?” Frisk offered, reaching out to comfort MK, before realizing what ne was saying.

“Please don't tell Papyrus I failed so badly, yo. I can't even... I can't even beat a weak human like you... please don't tell him,” MK cried quietly, and Frisk didn't even think about it, pulling the monster into a gentle hug much to nir surprise.

“It's ok, I promise, and you did really really good,” Frisk reassured nem, and MK shook his head, before nearly jumping out of nir skin as Papyrus spoke up.

“YOU DID INDEED DO WELL, MONSTER KID. IT WOULD APPEAR THAT THE HUMAN KID IS QUITE ADEPT AT DODGING, THOUGH NE COULD DO MUCH BETTER. IN FACT, I THINK THAT HUMAN KID WILL TRAIN WITH US TOMORROW,” Papyrus said, and MK squeaked in surprise. Frisk squeaked in surprise as well, a finger of apprehension curling down nir back. “FOR NOW, I THINK WE'LL DO DINNER AND WE'LL HAVE A LONG TALK ABOUT WHAT I MEAN WHEN I SPREAD THE WORD THAT SANS' PET HUMAN IS TO BE LEFT ALONE.”

* * *

Frisk swallowed and poked at the plate of Fettuccine that had been placed in front of nir, looking and smelling even worse than before if that was possible. Papyrus hadn't said anything else as he had marched both MK and Frisk into his house and made them sit down at the table by the door. There were only two seats, and apparently MK was used to this set up because ne looked at the plate in front of nir as if ne had a grudge against it and resolutely began eating.

Frisk wasn't sure what ne had expected MK to do, but the monster had used the tip of nir tail to deftly pick up the fork and use it to eat with. Papyrus watched them for a moment, glaring at Frisk until ne to picked up nir fork and managed to take a bite before nodding approvingly and moving back into the kitchen.

“Just eat as much as you can,” MK said quietly, nir voice almost a whisper, and Frisk gulped, nir face twisted in discomfort as ne continued to take bites.

When Papyrus had returned, MK's plate was empty, and Frisk had made it two thirds of the way through nir plate.

“HUMAN, IT SEEMS YOUR APPETITE HASN'T FULLY RECOVERED YET,” Papyrus stated, glaring at the food left on the plate and then Frisk.

“It's okay, I don't usually eat a lot anyways,” Frisk stated quickly, smiling as best as ne could even though the taste was lingering in nir mouth.

“HMMM... VERY WELL, IF YOU ARE CERTAIN. NOW, MONSTER KID, THIS IS HUMAN KID, OR FRISK AS NE LIKES TO BE KNOWN. YOU TWO WILL GET ALONG AND NOT FIGHT WITHOUT SUPERVISION, DO I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR?” Papyrus demanded, and Frisk nodded even as MK let out a quick 'Yes sir.'

“GOOD. NOW AS I SAID, BOTH OF YOU WILL REPORT TO ME IN THE MORNING FOR TRAINING. I EXPECT BOTH OF YOU TO DO WELL, SO BE SURE TO GET TO BED ON TIME. YOUR RECENT ILLNESS WILL NOT EXCUSE YOU FROM DOING WELL, HK. NOW, I NEED TO CHECK AND RECALIBRATE MY TRAPS, BUT SANS **WILL** BE MAKING CERTAIN YOU BOTH GO TO SLEEP AT A REASONABLE TIME,” Papyrus added a glare for Sans who had settled in on the couch with his bottle of hot sauce.

“Sure thing, bro,” Sans made a little salute with his bottle as he spoke, and Papyrus nodded in satisfaction before heading out. As soon as Papyrus was out of the room, Sans took a chug from the bottle before looking to Frisk and MK. “You heard him, Kids. But... uh... do whatever you want. I think I'm going to head to Grillby's for drinks but if you come along I'm not paying for yours.”

MK quickly followed Sans out of the house, and Frisk followed suit, before pausing, not sure if ne was supposed to follow Sans, or stay back. Sans was one of nir soul mates, but maybe he wanted some time to himself to come to terms with it? Frisk knew that ne would appreciate some time to think, because ne was so confused.

“So.. uh... follow me, yo,” MK stated, and Frisk looked at nir in surprise. “I mean, if you want to... but I really want a cinnamon Bunny to wash the fettuccine down, you know?”

“Does... does it help?” Frisk asked, not sure if it would be insulting to monster food to immediately eat something else to wash the taste of Papyrus' fettuccine away, or if MK was serious.

“Yes,” MK said, making a face, and Frisk laughed, gladly following the young monster.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> O.o Papyrus... Papyrus what are you doing???
> 
> 8D Comments fuel my writing speed... unless I'm working. Fast update. 
> 
> Edit: Also [I made sketches of some of these guys, check them out. ](http://illoustrioustaco.tumblr.com/post/144841608996/alright-this-is-the-first-time-ive-added-my-own)


	16. Training?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Training Day One!
> 
> And Sans might have a problem....

“HUMAN KID FRISK! IT IS TIME TO AWAKEN SO THAT YOU WILL HAVE TIME FOR A HEALTHY BREAKFAST OF BREAKFAST FETTUCCINE TO SEE YOU THROUGH THIS MORNING'S TRAINING!” Frisk jerked awake at Papyrus' full volumed voice blasting into the room from fairly far away, nir heart hammering in nir chest at the sudden awakening. It took Frisk a moment to remember where ne was, but ne had fallen asleep in Sans hidden underground room, which with the lights off ended up being fairly creepy looking. “YOU HAVE TWENTY MINUTES TO GET TO THE HOUSE!”

Frisk wasn't sure how Papyrus' voice was even louder from the stairs than from four feet away, maybe he was shouting? Frisk groaned, rolling over and trying to pull nemself into at least a sitting position.

That intent was soon derailed by the sleepy murmur of someone burrowing into nir back. It took Frisk a moment to figure out who had nir pinned, and even then it was only by looking at the skeletal arm under the blanket that ne figured it out. Frisk frowned, carefully trying to detangle nemself from Sans' grip and wondering how on earth he had slept through Papyrus shouting down the stairs.

Sans grumbled again as Frisk managed to get loose, quickly stuffing nir pillow into Sans' arm to keep questing hands from grabbing nir again. It was adorable and confusing, but everything about soul mates was confusing.

And Frisk really needed to get moving to stay on Papyrus' good side.

With a sigh, ne pulled nemself away from the bed and towards the stairs before starting the long trek up and towards the house. When ne got there, Papyrus was waiting at the door, a slight frown on his features as he ushered Frisk towards the table just inside the house. Frisk still wasn't confident enough to venture into the rest of the house, and ne hadn't been invited in anyways. Undoubtedly there were traps waiting for anyone foolish enough to invade without invitation.

“HUMAN KID, YOU ARE TWO MINUTES LATE. PLEASE DO BETTER IN THE FUTURE,” Papyrus stated as he set a plate of the dreaded fettuccine in front of nir, and ne swallowed thickly, nodding even as ne set into it with determination. Papyrus left Frisk to nir own devices as he moved back into the kitchen, and while Frisk was curious about what the Skeleton was doing in there, ne had a plate of fettuccine to conquer. MK had been right, the sweet treat of a Cinnamon Bunny was just the perfect thing to wash the taste of fettuccine out of nir mouth.

Ne just had to wait until ne was no longer under the watchful eyes of Papyrus to sneak off and retrieve the treat without offending him. It wasn't going to be easy, and it would take quite a bit of sneakiness from Frisk, something ne wasn’t very good at.

It was with the taste of Papyrus' fettuccine still in nir mouth that Frisk followed the tall skeleton towards the forest. It didn't take long to get to the clearing that Papyrus said he used for training MK, and ne was already waiting there, shifting nervously from one foot to the other, nir tail twitching.

When the monster spotted Papyrus and Frisk, nir eyes focused on the human, and Frisk noticed that ne had a bundle of flowers gripped tightly in nir lips. Frisk didn't recognize most of the wild flowers, but when MK ran up to nir and deposited the flowers in nir hands, Frisk blushed brightly.

“Y... yo, I... I never really properly said sorry for attacking you yesterday, dude, and a fight is no way to start off a new... new friendship..” MK sputtered nervously, and Frisk grinned, gripping the flowers and smelling them. They smelled good, and looked very nice, and with a wide smile, Frisk darted forward to hug MK tightly.

“Thank you,” ne said simply. “It really means a lot to me and I'm glad we're friends.”

By the time Frisk pulled back, there was a bright red blush on MK's yellow scales, and it was ridiculously cute.

“AHEM. IF YOU TWO ARE DONE, IT'S TIME TO BEGIN TRAINING,” Papyrus stated, and Frisk blushed nemself, nodding and tucking the bundle of flowers into nir pocket for now. At one point Asriel had given nir a backpack, but ne wasn't sure where it had gotten to, so for now, pockets had to do.

The hope of not disappointing Papyrus or MK filled nir with Determination.

* * *

Sans groaned, dumping hot sauce into the half full glass of whiskey that Grillby had reluctantly poured for him. He wasn't too worried about Frisk training with Papyrus, and there hadn't been a reset yet so that meant that nothing had gone wrong. His bro was the absolute best when it came to training someone up to the best of their abilities instead of trying to make them live up to someone else. With Kid, well MK had blossomed under Papyrus' tutelage. Unless Frisk came back to Sans in tears and a blubbering mess, which didn't seem likely because the human kid seemed to be made of something pretty stern given all the times ne had died, he wasn't going to quibble over it.

Hell, Frisk would probably be better able to defend nemself in a fight after Paps was done with nir.

No, Sans needed this time to get his head straight. There wasn't anyone he could particularly ask about it and the whole soulmates thing was pretty confusing. He had heard about soulmates before, who hasn't? But to think that he had one, and that ne was a human kid? Frisk was like, eight, tops, so he had time to come to terms with it, but he really wasn't sure he was up to the whole soulmates thing.

Slugging back the hot sauce laced liquor, he glared into the empty cup like it might hold the secrets to the situation he found himself in.

He had gone to the library, both last night and again this morning, but there really wasn't that much material on soulmates, and what there was outright stated that soulmates were supposed to fall in love, get married, and have kids. Of all the books in the library, only one of them was actually dedicated to soulmates, and the other dozen that even mentioned them were all romance novels of a kind that made Sans very uncomfortable.

It wasn't just because Frisk was a kid either, at least he didn't think so. While he enjoyed the fact that he didn't instantly poison Frisk every time he touched nir, the thought of doing anything more was not appealing in the least. Hugs were amazing, and the simple ability to lean on someone and relax was pure heaven, but every book stated that there was more to soulmates in graphic detail. Sans was both less than impressed and pretty grossed out about it.

“Hey Grillz, hook me up?” Sans managed to ask, making sure not to slur his words since this would be his fifth drink this morning.

The fire elemental gave him an unimpressed look, and Sans scowled right back until Grillby shrugged and poured another whiskey for him. It didn't take Sans long to down this one as well, following it with a healthy chug of hot sauce.

He really needed to find a way out of this soulmates thing if it was only going to end up gross.

* * *

It felt like it had been hours upon hours since Papyrus had paired MK and Frisk to fight each other, MK using magic and physical attacks to try to hit Frisk, and Frisk's only job being to dodge out of the way. MK's attacks seemed a whole lot less destructive, for which Frisk was grateful, but it was still exhausting to work on dodging all day. By the time Papyrus called a halt to 'training' Frisk was sweating heavily, the shirt ne had borrowed from Sans soaked through and the coat long since laid to the side in the snow.

Kid didn't seem to be having nearly as much trouble with overheating, but Frisk had a feeling that ne had channeled all of the excess heat from exertion into nir magic somehow.

“MONSTER KID, HUMAN KID. THE FEELING OF LOOKING UP TO SOMEONE AND THE JOY OF SPENDING TIME WITH THEM, LEARNING FROM THEM. THE PURE DELIGHT OF GETTING YOUR MOVES AND MAGIC JUST RIGHT. I CAN'T IMAGINE THESE FEELINGS YOU BOTH OBVIOUSLY HAVE ABOUT THE TERRIFIC PAPYRUS, WHO IS ME, BUT WHAT I CAN IMAGINE BECAUSE I FEEL IT, IS PRIDE. YOU HAVE DONE WELL WITH TODAY’S TRAINING,” Papyrus stated, and Frisk smiled, knowing that MK was grinning as well. “HOWEVER, DO NOT LET THE PRIDE I FEEL GO TO YOUR HEAD. I EXPECT YOU TO CONTINUE DOING YOUR BEST TO IMPROVE, BECAUSE WHILE YOU ARE DOING WELL, BETTER THAN YESTERDAY, THERE IS STILL ROOM TO DO EVEN BETTER! NEVER STOP STRIVING TO YET GREATER HEIGHTS OF AMAZINGNESS!”

“Thank you,” Frisk stated when Papyrus was done, smiling up at him brightly. “Thank you for training me along with Kid, and taking the time to teach me how to dodge better.”

Papyrus looked ridiculously pleased at Frisk's words, and MK piped up as well.

“Y... yea, thanks Papyrus!” ne stated, and the skeleton grinned brightly.

“IT WAS A DELIGHT TO TRAIN BOTH OF YOU TODAY,” Papyrus stated, breaking out into a high, manic laugh. “BUT FOR NOW, I MUST ATTEND TO MY DUTIES AS A ROYAL KNIGHT. YOU BOTH HAVE THE REST OF TODAY TO REST AND RECOVER, AND I EXPECT TO SEE YOU BRIGHT AND EARLY TOMORROW MORNING.”

With that the tall, intimidating looking skeleton turned to leave, marching off without saying anything more. Frisk watched him go, not quite sure what to do next.

“Yo, you go by Frisk, right? I... uh... I got some Cinnamon Bunnies, if you would like one? A snack is always a good idea after training, right?” MK stated, and Frisk nodded, grinning brightly.

“I wouldn't turn down a Cinnamon Bunny,” Frisk stated with a grin, and MK laughed, a light blush on his features. “You can tell me more about how things work down here. I want to hear more about the Royal Knights you mentioned.”

Kid laughed, leading Frisk to a place to hang out. The feeling of making a new friend filled Frisk with Determination.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Slightly shorter than usual... -_- but that is where it wanted to end... 
> 
> Also, Underhell MK is friggen adorable. I can't stop doodling nir. 
> 
> pls send help


	17. In which very little actually happens

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Papyrus explains soulmates a little, as he understands them at least, and Frisk and MK wake up after snuggling together all night.

It wasn't a good thing, the fact that Sans was having a hard time standing up straight, let alone making it someplace safe to sleep off the alcohol. That was why he was disproportionately glad to see his brother come to get him, the taller skeleton TSKing at him the whole way back to the house.

His little brother didn't say anything though, merely taking Sans down into the hidden basement room and depositing him on the mattress that he slept on. Papyrus sat talking to him, but Sans couldn't find it in himself to understand much.

When Sans woke up, Papyrus was still there, sitting in the chair that Sans never bothered using. It was too much effort really when the bed was easier to lay on. Sans looked up and found that Papyrus was wide awake, staring at him as he pushed himself into a sitting position. The smaller skeleton slumped when he managed to sit up, his head throbbing like something had taken up residence in his skull and was now trying to pound its way out.

Papyrus, the Merciful Papyrus, gave him a few more minutes to compose himself before he started speaking.

“ARE YOU GOING TO TELL ME WHY YOU TRIED TO DRINK YOURSELF UNCONSCIOUS LAST NIGHT?” Papyrus demanded, causing Sans to flinch at the louder than usual volume his brother was using. He probably deserved that. Although Sans had tried to be the responsible one, he had taken up drinking a while ago to numb out the pain and depression.

Papyrus had also convinced him to stop a while ago, a couple of years at least, but it couldn’t have made the taller skeleton happy to find him in that condition the night before.

“Sorry bro,” Sans stated, slumping down and wishing he had another shot to chase the sick feeling out of his lack of guts. “I just... got to thinking and it, well...” he trailed off, not knowing what to say at all.

“YOU MIGHT TELL ME WHAT YOU WERE THINKING OF THEN,” Papyrus stated, and Sans started, wondering for a moment if he had said that last part out loud, before deciding that no he hadn't. Papyrus was just that perceptive, which might have surprised most other monsters, but not Sans.

“Did you know that humans have the names of their soulmates written on their bodies?” Sans finally said, and Papyrus' brow bone went up. 

“I didn't. Surprised the hell out of me when Frisk got out of the shower and I bought clothes in for nir to find nir wrapping a bandage around nir arm to hide it. Apparently it wasn't written in a human language, or humans don't approve of soulmates or something. Frisk had to keep it- them, hidden. But one's written in Hands.”

“HANDS? I WASN'T AWARE THERE WAS A WRITTEN COMPONENT TO THAT LANGUAGE,” Papyrus stated, frowning, and Sans had to laugh.

“It was his native language,” Sans stated, the venom in his voice making it clear who he was talking about, before sighing. “Technically mine too, since I learned it before I learned any other language.”

“SO YOU COULD READ IT THEN, TO FIND OUT WHO FRISK'S SOULMATE IS?”

“Bro, not only could I read it, it looked like I had written it. It was how I used to sign my name before he tried to kill me and I got us out of there,” Sans slumped. “How the hell do you react when you're the soulmate to something like a human?”

Papyrus was silent for a moment, and Sans nursed his throbbing head and wallowed in his depression for a moment.

“THE SAME WAY, I IMAGINE, YOU ARE A SOULMATE TO ANYONE ELSE I SUPPOSE,” Papyrus stated, looking more thoughtful than Sans expected when the smaller skeleton looked up. “HAVE YOU EVER HEARD MUSIC WHEN THERE IS NO WAY IT CAN BE PLAYING?”

Sans frowned, but nodded, thinking of the times he would hear distant songs before falling asleep, or waking up. It was less in his dreams, and more on the cusp between waking up or sleeping.

“DO YOU KNOW WHAT SOUL SONGS ARE?”

“Every monster has a song in their hearts, and their soulmates can hear it to know who they are,” Sans stated hesitantly, almost making a question out of it. He had never been told, but he had picked it up from listening in on conversations who had no idea he was there.

“IT'S A BIT MORE COMPLICATED THAN THAT. IT TAKES TRAINING AND A WILLINGNESS TO LISTEN MOST OF THE TIME TO HEAR YOUR SOULMATES SOUL SONG. YOU'VE PROBABLY BEEN HEARING FRISK'S SOUL SONG OFF AND ON SINCE NE WAS BORN AND IF YOU HAVE ANOTHER SOULMATE THEN YOU'VE PROBABLY HEARD THEIRS AS WELL,” Papyrus stated, sighing. “IF YOU WOULD LIKE I CAN TEACH YOU HOW TO LISTEN.”

“Y... yea, I think I would appreciate that,” Sans said, frowning. “Bro, how do you know so much about this?”

“I HAVE ALREADY MET MY TWO SOULMATES. ONE IS MY CLOSEST FRIEND, AND THE OTHER... WELL WE ARE DANCING AROUND THE SUBJECT, BUT I'M WORKING ON SEDUCING HIM,” Papyrus let out a laugh, and Sans could see a light orange blush of magic across his features.

“Oh... So soulmates have to...”

“NO. THEY DON'T. I WANT TO SEDUCE HIM BECAUSE I FIND HIM ATTRACTIVE. MY OTHER SOULMATE IS LIKE THE SISTER WE DON'T HAVE. LET'S GO GET SOME FETTUCCINE AND I'LL START EXPLAINING HOW TO LISTEN FOR SOULMATES. HUMAN KID AND MONSTER KID SHOULD BE HERE SOON FOR BREAKFAST.”

“Yea... ok, that sounds pretty good,” Sans stated, beginning the tedious chore of hauling himself to his feet. He even made it to the door, following Papyrus as his brother led the way back to the house before a single question occurred to him. “Wait, why isn't Frisk around already for breakfast?”

“WELL, AFTER SEEING YOU SO CRANKY AT GRILLBY'S LAST NIGHT, HUMAN KID WAS UNHAPPY, SO I TOLD NIR TO HAVE A SLEEPOVER WITH MONSTER KID.”

“Uh... Papyrus, you do know that Monster Kid lives in a hole in the ground, right?”

* * *

Frisk was warm, really warm, for what felt like the first time in days. While the shower at Sans' house hadn't been that bad, reasonably warmish even, it hadn't been hot enough to really chase the chill of Snowdin away. Sans' basement room was insulated too, if a bit chilly. With a blanket it wasn't that bad, but Sans and Papyrus really didn't seem to get that it was actually cold. Some of the other monsters might have understood, Frisk had seen a few surly looking monsters swaddled from neck down in scarves and cloaks, but the monsters with fur all seemed content with the weather.

Frisk was warm bordering on actually hot, and ne snuggled against the warmth, breathing in a musky, smoky scent, before blinking. The lighting was dim, but daylight could be seen through cracks above, and it took Frisk a moment to remember the dilapidated building that MK had led nir to when Papyrus had suggested a sleepover, promising to look after Sans.

It had been scary seeing the smaller skeleton so out of it, and the hostile looks the other monsters had been giving him had worried Frisk a lot. Sans was nir soulmate and friend, and Frisk didn't want anything bad happening to him. Sans hadn't even seemed to recognize Frisk when ne went up to him at the bar to try to talk to him. He just kept grumbling at nir to go away.

Frisk would have had really hurt feelings over that if MK hadn't been there to explain that the skeleton was drunk, and probably didn't even realize what he was saying. As it was, MK had headed off feelings of sadness and despondency by suggesting to ask Papyrus for help in taking care of the comedic skeleton.

Yawning, Frisk stretched, the warm, rigid pillow that ne had been nestled against twitching as ne moved. With wide eyes Frisk sat up, looking at MK where the arm less monster had been curled around nir.

“Y... Yo. Good morning,” MK stated, blushing brightly, and Frisk felt an answering blush on nir own face as ne realized that ne had been literally cuddled up against the odd, scaled monster. Ne had curled around Frisk, and after a moment of embarrassment at having cuddled with nir host while sleeping, Frisk decided ne liked being warm and leaned forward to snuggle once more against MK. “Uh.. h.. hey, we've got to get up, you know? Papyrus is going to be expecting us at his place soon. I mean, Cinnamon Bunnies aren't that filling unless you eat a lot of them, and Fettuccine is free food, you know?”

“Yea... that is true,” Frisk admitted with a sigh, before hauling nemself to nir feet and looking around for the jacket Sans had lent nir. It had ended up a few feet away on the dirt floor of MK's home. Frisk had to admit that if this had been a club house, or even just a hangout area, it would be the coolest one ever. It wasn't in the dilapidated building that MK called the old ice shed when ne led Frisk here, but rather underneath it. MK had avoided the front door of the shed completely, going over to where an old, broken conveyor belt had concealed a trap door just like the one to Sans' basement room underneath his and Papyrus' house.

Frisk was starting to wonder if any of the houses and buildings in the village were actually lived in.

The trap door had led to a small room under the shed, literally directly underneath it. MK, or someone helping MK had dug out a relatively shallow little room, shoring the walls up with old pieces of wood. It had been freezing when they first arrived, which was understandable because the roof of the little cave was the floorboards of the building above, and they were spaced wide enough that there was light seeping down into the little room from outside the shed. Frisk had been resigned to sleeping cold again, but it had warmed up soon enough while ne was talking with MK in the night.

“You ready? Papyrus is going to be cranky if we're late, you know?”

“I'm ready!” Frisk stated brightly, pulling on Sans' jacket, “And the fettuccine isn't... that bad. One of my big brothers tried to cook once, and well, we all ate it even though it was both charred and under cooked.”

“What did he even make?” MK asked, something like morbid curiosity in nir voice, and Frisk grinned as ne bounced towards the stairs that led to the hidden exit.

“Breakfast quiche. There were runny eggs everywhere when he pulled it out to serve.”

“Yo... what is a quiche?” MK asked, confused, and Frisk paused to look at nir, biting nir lip as ne tried to figure out how to explain it.

“It's... kind of like an egg pie. Its usually more savory than sweet though. For holidays my aunt makes spinach and asparagus quiche and it's really really good.”

“Frisk, I'm going to be honest, yo, it sounds kinda weird. Do all humans eat weird stuff?” MK asked, using his forehead to push open the trapdoor. “I mean, I've heard that human food is weird anyways, just like human bodies, rotting and breaking down, but, well. Egg pies with spinach and asparagus?”

“When you put it that way, it sounds bad. I know that monster food has magic ingredients, but I'll have to see if I can find the right ones to make a quiche for you so you understand,” Frisk said, laughing. “For now, let's hurry to the Papyrus and Sans' house.”

* * *

On the third day of training with Papyrus and MK, Frisk discovered that it was time for nir to move on. The pressure was back, and ne found nemself walking towards the edge of town, away from the way ne had come from. Sans was concerned, and following from not far away.

Papyrus was standing in the way, blocking the path with a frown on his skeletal face.

“HUMAN KID, WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING?” he demanded, and Frisk looked up at him, the pressure to move on sudden and very insistent.

“I have go go... I can't.. I can't stay,” Frisk stated, sad but unable to articulate any better.

“NO,” Papyrus stated, and Frisk smiled sadly. “I'M SORRY HUMAN KID, BUT YOU MUST STAY IN SNOWDIN. I CAN NOT ALLOW YOU TO MOVE ON AND RISK CAPTURE OR DEATH. HIS MAJESTY IN PARTICULAR IS LOOKING FOR HUMAN SOULS, AND EVERYONE WANTS TO GET ON THE KING'S GOOD SIDE. TURN AROUND AND GO BACK TO SNOWDIN.”

The command was emphasized by Papyrus summoning a half ring of bones behind himself, blocking off the entire path to the next area. It wasn't aggressive enough to pull Frisk's soul into a fight, but it was distressing, and Frisk felt frustration welling up inside of nir.

“Papyrus, please... I have to. I can't explain it, but I have to move on. It's calling me...”

“IT'S PROBABLY SOMETHING TO DO WITH THE KING AND THE OTHER SOULS HE'S ALREADY GATHERED. HUMAN, I CAN NOT IN GOOD CONSCIENCE ALLOW YOU TO LEAVE SNOWDIN, AND I WILL NOT ASK AGAIN. TURN BACK.”

Frisk shook nir head, determination welling up inside of nir. Hopefully ne wouldn't have to go too far back when Papyrus killed nir, but ne had to try to get through.

“SANS, TAKE YOUR PET HUMAN BACK INTO TOWN,” Papyrus demanded, and Frisk could all but feel his anger and frustration, but it was tempered by a cold kind of fear.

“Sorry bro... I made a promise to stay out of it when the kid fights... doesn't fight,” Sans sighed, and Papyrus got a pinched look on his face. “It kinda looks like this is going that way.”

“INDEED,” Papyrus stated, glancing down as shadows seemed to come over his face. “A PROMISE THEN? ALRIGHT, LET US BEGIN. WE WILL SEE HOW DETERMINED YOU ARE TO MOVE ON.”

Frisk's soul responded to Papyrus' attacks, and ne yelped as ne dodged the first volley of bones. The attack patterns were unlike anything ne had seen Papyrus throw before, harder to dodge and jump around, and it took a what felt like a ridiculously short time for Frisk's health to get low enough that Frisk was panting for breath.

Most of the hits hadn't connected solidly, but there were still cuts and bruises all over Frisk's body.

Frisk was certain ne was about to die and go back once again as the last summoned bone slammed into nir body, and Frisk doubled over, coughing as ne waited for one more attack that never came.

“WELL THEN HUMAN KID YOU ARE FAR FROM READY TO LEAVE SNOWDIN. WE WILL RESUME TRAINING TOMORROW.” Papyrus stated, and Frisk looked up at him, confused. “IF YOU CAN SOMEDAY DODGE EVERY ATTACK I CAN SEND AT YOU, I MAY LET YOU LEAVE SNOWDIN. PERHAPS. UNTIL THEN, WE ARE GOING TO TRAIN.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I was trucking along in this story, and some people made me feel like shit for the way I write, because I write best when bouncing ideas with other people, listening to their ideas and sharing mine. 
> 
> Don't get me wrong, I still want to write this story, but it's got a bad taste for me right now so obviously I've slowed way down writing it. I'll try to post as much as I can as often as I can, and I do have most of it plotted out at least. I've even got a fair bit of the sequel in mind. (I think you'll like it, everyone Deals with the Mages)


	18. Heart and Soul

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey ya'all, sorry it took so long to write this. Honestly, I'm hoping it was worth the wait, and thanks to everyone who offered encouragement. I was feeling pretty down about how I write best, but I want to continue this so... 
> 
> Also... might want to have tissues or something on hand... I made myself cry writing this and a perverse part of me hopes it has the same effect on everyone else.

Sans watched Frisk dodge as attack wave after attack wave of bones flew towards nir, intricate patterns designed by his brother to be impossible for an enemy to dodge. Magic formed bones above and below the souled human, chipping away again at Frisk's health points, letting them drop by small chunks.

Frisk didn't have that much health, but ne had gotten better and better at dodging over the last several days. Ne was more focused and driven than Sans had seen nir even when ne first came from the Ruins to the Snowdin area. Sans was more worried than ever before, feeling like he was choking, or at least what he imagined choking would feel like. Since he didn't exactly have a throat, it was a very approximate approximation indeed, but he figured that the feeling of magic wrapped tight around his throat and squeezing was similar enough.

He had been feeling it since Frisk stopped talking two days ago. It was nothing like the gradual change that had come over Frisk on the way to snowdin, when the human had been determined to get to town. Frisk was exhausted, nir body seemingly wearing out no matter how much fettuccine Papyrus stuffed into nir, or how often Sans made the human rest in his lab.

There hadn't been any resets since the new training regime, and Sans was starting to wonder if that was what was taking it's toll on Frisk. The first time Papyrus had spared the human it had very much confused Frisk, until Sans had explained about his brothers fine control over his powerful magic. The thirtieth time Papyrus had spared Frisk the human had gotten frustrated to the point of tears. That had happened two days ago, and shortly after breaking down Frisk had stopped talking entirely, the look on nir face one of pure determination. Clenched lips, furrowed eyebrows, and a fiery look in nir eyes said it all.

Several times a day, Frisk headed for the exit from Snowdin that would lead nir to Waterfall. 

Several times a day, Papyrus was there to stop nir.

Sans was getting worn out. Nights at least the human would occasionally rest long enough for Papyrus to give Sans more pointers on what exactly soulmates meant and how to listen for the songs he could hear sometimes before he fell asleep. Sans wasn't doing much better than before, but at least he had more solid information than looking it up in the town library. Papyrus had laughed at him when he cited the sources he had looked into, with good reason apparently. None of the books in the Library were anywhere near accurate.

Sans winced, his attention drawn back to the battle raging in front of him, Frisk pushing nir body harder and harder to dodge the intricate attack patterns of bones rolling nir way. Even Papyrus was getting tired, though Frisk probably couldn't tell. Then of course, things went to shit.

“Human! There’s a Human in town and it’s killed at least two monsters already!” MK shouted, running into the battle with little to no regard for Papyrus and Frisk. Of course MK got tangled up in Frisk’s legs as ne did so, tripping both nemself and the human.

Thankfully Papyrus was able to send his attack wide instead of hitting his proteges but San’s soul was still in his throat at the thought of what could have happened. Then what MK was saying penetrated and he cursed, turning  towards town.

“WHERE WAS IT LAST SEEN?” Papyrus demanded, and Sans hesitated on moving out himself. He had a hard time with soulless humans, though at least he could damage them. Physical attacks were best, but those were not something Sans was any good at and it took a lot of magic to wear out the soulless husk and kill it.

“By the library, it looked like it was trying to beat down the door and get inside,” MK panted, and Papyrus was off, moving far swifter than Sans could ever muster the effort for.

Sans was about to teleport over to make sure that things went well for his brother when Frisk spoke up for the first time in days. “T… take me there? Please?”

Nir voice was rough with disuse, and Sans hesitated before nodding, moving over to place one hand on Frisk’s shoulder before teleporting, at the moment not caring if MK saw. The armless monster was exhausted though, panting in the snow, so Sans hoped he didn’t pay attention to what Sans did.

Frisks reaction was as horrifying as the human covered in dust.  With as much time as he had spent around Frisk, Sans felt he had a grasp of what a human with a soul was supposed to be like.  This human obviously had none.  

There was an emptiness about it that made Sans cold and he wanted to haul Frisk somewhere safe and far away. It also looked spookily like Frisk, which gave him a cold shiver down his spine. The same skin tone, though it looked a bit jaundiced in comparison to Frisk, and the same hair and eye colors. Where Frisk’s eyes were bright and lively though, the soulless human might as well have had gray glass marbles peering out from their face.

“Joren?” Frisk said and it occurred to Sans that ne knew the soulless human.  “Please Joren, stop. Please?”

The horror and heartbreak in Frisk's voice was almost enough to make Sans weep,  but he held on, one hand holding Frisk for support and in case they needed to make a hasty exit.  

Surprisingly the human,  Joren, stopped and turned to Frisk but there was no recognition in its face and Sans shuddered at the look in it’s glassy eyes.

“You.  How could you abandon us that way.  It's all your fault,” Joren stated,  it's eyes dead even though there was hate in its voice.  “You left us and the mages were angry that you got away when they came for you in the first place.  If you had been there I wouldn't have had to watch as the tortured Selama and took her soul.  I wouldn't have lost my soul because of you.”

Sans couldn't believe what he was hearing and he stared at the human with rage bubbling up in him, even as Frisk started sobbing.

“Now listen here buddy, I think you need to be quiet now,” Sans said, injecting a cheerful note into his voice even though he was terrified to his very core.

“Make me, Monster,” Joren stated, it’s lips twisted into a mocking grin.

“I THINK I’LL HANDLE THAT,” the bone attack came out of the air just in front of Sans and Frisk, slamming into Joren and knocking him back against the library door.

Frisk cried out but the other human didn’t even seem affected by the blow, even though scarlet blood oozed sluggishly out of a few new scratches in it’s skin. Sans recoiled at sight and scent, even as the human dragged its body forward with a twisted grin. A flash and a dusty hand axe that Sans hadn’t really noticed before came forward, and since Sans was closest to the abomination he had about half a second to panic.

Then his magic kicked in and he was across the road from the thing even as Frisk raced forward to tackle it.

* * *

It felt like ice in nir heart and rocks in nir gut, but Frisk threw nirself forward into Joren, trying to pin him down. Somehow, Frisk needed to stop him before anyone else could get hurt. There had to be some way to get through to him and make him see that what he was doing was wrong.

“Please stop Joren, please?” Frisk begged, hot tears leaving trails over icy cold cheeks, colder than even the pretty low ambient temperatures in Snowdin would account for.

“Little Freak, this is all your fault. You’re so weak. So pathetic,” the soft croon sounded like when Joren used to comfort nir when ne was younger, but the hateful words cut into Frisk’s heart like daggers, right into all the secret little insecurities that Frisk had worked so hard to hide away. “Even in our family you’ve always been a Freak, an Outsider. Who could ever have actually cared for some **thing** like you. If I had known then what I know now, I would have taken you to Haisley Castle myself just so you wouldn’t stain our honor any more.”

“Joren please… this isn’t like you...:” Frisk’s heart was breaking more with every word, and a wracking sob escaped as ne fell to nir knees. “Please… please Joren… Please… stop?”

“And give you the satisfaction, Freak?”

“FRISK WATCH OUT!”

The warning came too late for Frisk to do anything but look up as the dusty hand axe came down directly on nir head, giving a new meaning to splitting headache.

* * *

Even in the void the pain didn’t end. Frisk wasn’t even sure ne had them in this place, but nir heart and stomach both felt like stone, heavy and tight. Nir throat was like a vise, clamping down on the urge to breathe and ne wondered if the pain would go away if ne stayed here long enough.

_kid…_

Surely nothing was worth this much pain?

_kid…please._

The physical pain of dying had never felt half as bad as the heartbreak of Joren’s cruel words.

_kid… i need you…_

More importantly, they had all been taken…

_Frisk… please…_

… and there was no reason to keep going…

_...i need you…_

… there was nothing left…

_... please don’t…_

… and no one cared…

_**don’t leave me alone!!!** _

* * *

Sans stared down at Frisk’s body, even as Joren wrenched it’s axe out of nir head. Even though he knew that Frisk was human, something in him stuttered, expecting Frisk to turn to dust before his very eyes.

Somehow the fact that ne didn’t was even more horrifying.

“Kid… no… oh Stars no…” Sans gasped, wrenching himself back to Frisk even as Papyrus’  magic attacks pushed Joren away. If they hadn’t gone back, that meant that ne was still alive, right?

Sans concentrated hard, trying to shift his focus the way Papyrus had been trying to coach him to do, hoping to hear that odd song that was Frisk’s soul. He needed the reassurance that Frisk would be ok more than ever, and for the first time since he had even known it was possible everything clicked.

It felt like he was floating somewhere between sleep and full awareness, just the way Papyrus had described how it would feel. Even though there was a certain level of detachment from his body as he focused on his magic, his soul, he reached out, grasping one of the sticky red hands of his soulmate. 

It felt like holding a hand shaped block of ice, but the songs were there, one far away and faint, and the other right here, faltering and fading fast, washed out and unraveling note by note.

“Kid… Kid please,” he found himself begging, wracking sobs shaking his body even as he tried to articulate the fear and need, reaching with every bit of magic he possessed to try to hold Frisk’s soul there. “Kid, I need you. Frisk please, please I need you, please don’t leave me alone!”

* * *

Frisk gasped for breath, falling to nir knees in the snow and instantly Sans’ arms were wrapped around nir.

“Oh Stars kid I thought… by the Sun…” Sans stuttered, and Frisk looked up to find bright blue magic forming tears leaking from his eye sockets.

“We… we have to find him…” Frisk croaked, nir throat sore and closed as ne tried to figure out how far back they had gone.

“HUMAN KID, ARE YOU UNWELL? PERHAPS YOU SHOULD PUT OFF YOUR ATTEMPTS TO LEAVE UNTIL YOU ARE FEELING BETTER,” Papyrus stated, and Frisk looked up to find the taller Skeleton striding forward from where he had stood a few feet away from where the snow stopped and a dirt path surrounded by fungus and moss started.

“This is the latest attempt to leave,” Sans stated, his quiet whisper making it clear he was unhappy. “Kid… just wait till Paps is distracted and we’ll slip past him…”

“No… we… we have to stop Joren before he kills anyone…” Frisk stated, feeling nir determination firm once more. “I have to find out why he was acting that way. It wasn’t like him at all.”

“He had no soul,” the words were harsh and ragged, like Sans had to force them out.

“WHO HAD NO SOUL?” Papyrus demanded, and Frisk shook nir head, looking up even though nir heart was still heavy.

“My brother.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you enjoyed this, please let me know in a review, or alternatively I've set up a skype chat because I like talking to people while I write. 
> 
> Seriously I love handing out links to my WIP so people can look it over and critique it before it's posted, and I have a habit of dropping little blurbs and snippets as I write. Check it out if you're interested (though Ideas may be bounced around so beware if you're not into that sort of thing) at https://join.skype.com/AlV42vzkssWl


	19. Cruelty

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which they find Frisk's Brother, and Papyrus makes a depressing realization.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Have a tissue on hand... Just in case, and be aware that this is, at least from my viewpoint, a very dark chapter.

Papyrus looked at the churned up snow where Frisk had collapsed sobbing, a frown making it’s way to his face. It could have been the Human was talking about something in the past, but it felt like it was something from now. Nir brother was soulless? If the way that Sans had made them disappear meant anything, then they were headed straight for whatever trouble the soulless human was getting into and it was sure to be a doozy.  

Setting his jaw, Papyrus strode towards town. It looked like he had a human to hunt down, one way or another.

* * *

“So where would this Joren be?” Sans asked looking through the forest paths. 

“I… I don't know.  But… I might be able to.. find him,” Frisk said,  a look of misery and pain on nir face. Sans didn't like that look at all and resolved one more to do what he could to ease Frisk's burden.  

“It's ok kid, we'll figure something out,” as far as cheering his human up went, it was a sorry try but all Sans had to offer.  

“There's no way to save him is there?” Frisk asked,  and Sans shook his head. 

“We've been studying soulless humans for a while kid and there's nothing that can be done to return or fix their souls that we know of,” it was a painful fact, but Sans couldn't bring himself to lie about it. “We can capture him and hold him till something else comes up, but we've got no other options right now.“

Frisk shuddered before nodding, the familiar look of Determination lighting nir face.  

“We'll find a way… or we'll stop him,” ne stated and Sans nodded this time.  

“First we gotta find him though. Any ideas on that front?” 

“I really, really want to go the other way.  The feeling of… nothing Joren had… it's repulsive,” Frisk explained and it dawned on Sans. 

“Is that what's been pushing you to leave?”

“If it is, that's how we can track Joren,“ Frisk said with another shudder. “Just being over here it feels like my head is going to pop and I'm going to throw up.”

Sans only had experience with a monster's puke and even that was pretty unpleasant.  It was nearly terrifying to ponder what a human's puke would look like and Sans shuddered himself in anticipation.  

“Well if you need to hurl just let me know and I'll get you somewhere safe, “ he said weakly.  They still had more to talk about but finding Frisk's brother had to come first.  “Till then lead on. “

“Thank you Sans,” there was a weak smile on nir features as Frisk started forward that quickly morphed to a look of Determination bordering pain.  

It was the longest half hour Sans had ever felt, following Frisk as ne trudged forward.  It had no small bit to do with the fact that Frisk was moving slowly,  each step a visible struggle. All Sans wanted to do was tell nem that it was okay to slow down even though he knew it wasn't.  

“It's okay kid, we got this…” is what he said instead, and he felt like such a tool for saying it.  Frisk seemed to take heart though, giving Sans another little smile.  

Then they found Joren. 

It, or he San's supposed though without a soul what use was gender, was stumbling down the path like some kind of zombie from the older books in the library.  There was already a fine coat of Dust on its hands though not as much as before Frisk reset.  

“Come out come out little freaks…” Joren said and Sans suppressed a shiver of unease.  “If it isn't the freakiest freak of all,  Frisk my little sister...only you aren't even that are you,  Freak? Not a girl,  not a boy,  you're just a freak of nature that shouldn't even exist.”

“Joren please,” Sans had to give it to Frisk because ne didn't sound quite as broken as the last time Joren had spewed his poison,  but he still didn't like the stain he could all but feel coming off his human soulmate.  

“Please what, Freak? Don't tell your little friend what a fucking failure you are? Don't let these creatures know exactly how fucked up you are? Fucking weirdo, those abominations might be exactly who you belong with.”

“They aren't abominations, Joren.  They're people just like me and Granther, please stop Joren,” Frisk was sobbing as ne spoke but it didn't phase the soulless human at all.

“Only abominations have magic.”

Frisk whimpered dropping to nir knees worth another sob.  “Please Joren… you had magic too… You were following in Granther's footsteps…”

“Granther is dead because of you,” it was the closest Sans had seen Joren come to having any kind of emotion but it wasn't sincere, it was mocking and didn't reach his glassy eyes.  “Because someone found out that you have soulmates, they came for the whole family, fucking freak.”

“Now wait just a minute,  why the hell would soulmates make the mages go after you?” Sans demanded,  before he felt his jacket puff up in reaction to his magic and emotions. For the first time since they had found him Joren’s attention turned to Sans,  and it was like having an abyss look into his soul.  The well of nothing that was the soulless human seemed emptier than any other soulless human Sans had seen,  though it might have only been that this was the longest he had been around one ever.  

“Soulmates are a form of magic, Freak.  The benevolent Mages saw fit to come for us because Frisk is a freak and abomination.” 

“He's insane,” Sans was still terrified but there was a kind of sad pity somewhere in his soul for the pathetic husk that used to be Frisk's brother.  “Frisk, I don't know what your brother was like, but he's not here anymore.  All that's left is a living husk…”

Joren cut him off with a derisive laugh, darting forward and swinging his dusty hatchet towards Sans. 

“Stay out of it,  little abomination.  This is between me and the freak,” Joren laughed again,  hatchet swinging wildly as he advanced on Frisk where ne hadn't even moved yet.  “It's all your fault…that they took my soul.”

“Frisk,  move!” Sans had to dodge away from the soulless maniac but Frisk didn't move even when Sans shouted,  and he had a split second of gut wrenching horror a the hatchet turned on his human.  

It hadn't been like the other times last time Frisk died, the world hadn't instantly snapped back to the arbitrary point when Frisk had felt determined, it had continued on.  For several agonising minutes he had held on as he felt Frisk's soul trickle away. 

He wasn't sure Frisk would come back this time if ne died. Panic rose as it felt like time slowed, and he went through his options.  An attack to knock Joren away would hit Frisk too, and even teleporting he wouldn't be fast enough to grab Frisk and be out of the way of that dusty hand axe. 

Since any option was better than nothing Sans made his choice,  and in the split second between the thoughts racing through his mind and Frisk dying, he moved himself between Frisk and the blade, ready to take the hit.  Even with Frisk's determination broken and with no way for nir to go back in time,  Sans wanted nir to live. 

Just like that the world was moving again,  and Sans braced for impact only for four sharp bones to impale Joren.  It fouled the soulless humans aim,  the hatchet whistling past the side of Sans skull before thunking into the snow next to where he gripped Frisk. 

“I THINK THAT'S QUITE ENOUGH OF THAT,” Sans heaved a sigh of relief at his brother's voice, looking up with a weak grin.  

“Bout time you got here bro,” Sans said as he tightened his grip on Frisk. 

“WE WILL DISCUSS THIS LATER SANS,  FOR NOW GET HUMAN KID SOMEWHERE SAFE AND WE WILL TAKE CARE OF THIS,” Papyrus stated and Sans looked up as most of the strongest fighters of the town melted out of the surrounding forest.  Each face had a look of anger or pity on it and Sans felt his jacket puff up again in embarrassment as he wondered how much they had heard.

* * *

With the cold and dispassionate eyes that had let him analyze his opponents and rise to the position of Royal Knight,  Papyrus watched the soulless human that had apparently once been Frisk's brother.  Just for that he would have given mercy to the pathetic creature. Frisk was kind and honestly didn't want anyone to come to harm,  seeing even Monsters as people in their own right unlike the few other ensouled humans he had encountered in his time as a Royal Knight.  When in nir right mind, Frisk loved Sans in a way that Papyrus was warily optimistic of, and seemed to be dancing around courtship with Monster Kid like a child with their first crush. 

Frisk's brother had probably been as open minded and kind when in his right mind, from the words he had caught the trail end of as he and the other defenders from Snowdin had caught up with Frisk and Sans. Without a soul however,  the human would never again be in his right mind.  

“GIVE UP, BROTHER OF HUMAN KID, AND WE WILL SPARE YOU WHAT PAIN WE CAN,” Papyrus called out,  watching as the human started to laugh it’s creepy hollow laugh. “IF YOU GIVE UP PEACEFULLY WE WILL ATTEMPT TO HOLD YOU UNTIL SUCH A TIME AS IT BECOMES POSSIBLE TO HEAL YOUR SOUL OR TO GIVE YOU A PEACEFUL PASSING.” 

“Pass.  It would have been better to kill the freak, but all I want is to kill as many of you abominations as I can…”

“VERY WELL. GOODBYE HUMAN,” Papyrus didn't waste any more words on the human, instead summoning a very special bone club. Unlike most weapons it wasn't made of magic and indeed only had enough magic on it to allow Papyrus to summon it from where he stored it in his shed. Even though it only had so much magic on it though, it made it slightly less effective against the soulless. 

Papyrus moved in anyways, speed and skill easily letting him out class the wildly swinging human. With that little bit of magic on the bone, it didn’t do as much damage to the human husk as it had before he had enchanted it. It still did enough damage, though not as fast. The husk laughed as Papyrus’ club broke each of it’s arms, a wild look in it’s disgusting, empty eyes. 

“Stupid freak… do you think I care about… broken bones?” the husk asked, grimacing as it tried to run forward and slam into Papyrus. He dodged easily, but the husk stumbled, falling into the snow. “Abomination… magic using freak.” 

“I THINK YOU’LL FIND THAT I DON’T HAVE TO USE MAGIC TO DEFEAT YOU… LAST CHANCE, BROTHER OF THE HUMAN CHILD, PLEASE GIVE UP. SINCE YOU ARE MY PUPIL’S SIBLING, I WILL DO ANYTHING WITHIN REASON TO TRY TO HELP YOU,” Papyrus might as well have been talking to a rock for all the soulless human cared.

“Fuck you… I’ll kill you and everything else that’s tried to help the Freak, and then I’ll kill it. Maybe then I’ll be at peace, if I fulfill the orders that the mages gave me…” 

Papyrus frowned, staying the killing blow for now. 

“WHY WOULD THE HUMAN MAGES CARE ABOUT FRISK? WHAT REASON COULD THEY POSSIBLY HAVE TO TORMENT A CHILD OF THEIR OWN KIND, OR FOR THAT MATTER NIR FAMILY?” he demanded, frowning as the soulless husk began to laugh again. 

“Like I care… Die, abomination!” it had to have been incredibly painful to move the fingers of a broken arm to wrap around the handle of the small axe that had been lying in the snow, and Papyrus cursed as he danced back from the wild swing the human aimed his way. He cursed again as he realized that the husk didn’t even care about the injuries, and he tried to aim a blow to knock the sharp weapon away. 

The soulless creature dodged, turning to run towards Dogamy where he stood grimly holding the perimeter with the other sentries. The canine monster barked in distress, hauling his axe up to block the blow though he took damage from it, stumbling back and out of position. Dogamy dropped his axe on the second blow, stumbling and no longer able to shield himself from the dusty hatchet, and with a curse Papyrus raced forward, his less magical club swinging hard against the back of the husk’s head. 

There was a familiar wet crunch that was all the more horrifying for being a regularly occurring part of Papyrus’ nightmares, and the human collapsed, it’s fingers twitching one more time as dark red blood leaked into the churned up white snow. 

Dogamy fell back, panting hard and with wide eyes even as Dogaressa left her position and ran to him. Papyrus ignored them, staring at the felled human husk for several moments to make certain, though the mild rush of exp was confirmation enough. 

“Captain Papyrus… is… is it true what Sans’ human has been saying then, that most if not all humans start off with souls?” it wasn't one of the dog monsters who asked, but rather a small rabbit monster who had shown a zeal and adeptness for fighting and defense that had impressed Papyrus from the start. 

“IT WOULD APPEAR SO,” Papyrus stated, glaring down at the dead husk. 

“Shouldn’t… shouldn’t we tell the King?” 

Papyrus considered it for several moments. He wasn’t the fastest thinker, and he had a habit of letting things that he didn’t care about pass him by. That didn’t mean he wasn’t observant, and ruthlessly he squashed the bit of himself that wanted to run to the king and present this news to him. In the deepest part of his soul, he wanted to believe that the king would relent, and show true mercy, perhaps even have pity on the future humans who came to the Underground. If the King could relent, and open his heart to the type of kindness Papyrus had discovered in Frisk, perhaps monsterkind could work together instead of against each other. Things could become better. 

Looking down at the soulless husk that had once been Frisk’s brother, Papyrus knew that could never happen. Little things added up in Papyrus’ mind, bits he had heard, the way the King spoke sometimes, the absolute viciousness with which the king preferred to execute souled humans. 

“I DON’T THINK THAT WILL BE NECESSARY. I HAVE A FEELING HE ALREADY KNOWS.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yea... so Joren's words hit a little close to home for me even as I wrote them... so... yea... definitely going to be dealing with that next chapter... O.O
> 
> I had a hard time re-reading it for editing so if you see any mistakes let me know.


	20. SAfeguard Variable Entropy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Frisk wallows in depression for a little while before someone very unexpected shakes nir out of it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry about last chapter... ;_; and although this chapter has the proper word length, it's mostly just a transition chapter to get things back on track since the story strayed a bit. That being said there's a very special unplanned guest appearance in this chapter of a character I thought I would never write for this universe. 
> 
> Also, I've been using this story as part of my Nanowrimo, and I've been working on it mostly from my Phone. If there are any mistakes let me know?

“Come on kid… don't do this please,” Sans rubbed Frisk's back, before wrapping his bony arm around the silent and still human.  “Please Frisk I know you're in there come on, wake up.”

There was no way in hell he was going to let his human soulmate know just how upset he was, but there also didn't seem to be any way to get Frisk to respond. It had been three days since Papyrus had defeated Frisk's brother,  and in that time Frisk hadn't moved once from where ne sat on Sans bed,  staring down at nir hands.  Nearby a plate of fettuccine sat untouched next to a pile of cinnamon Bunnies that grew by the day, when MK dropped them off with Papyrus.  This morning Sans had even brought the armless monster down to try to talk Frisk out of nir funk. 

Frisk hadn’t even looked up from where ne had been sitting, not even when MK had broken down in tears and asked Sans to take nir back to town. 

“Geeze Kid,  I don't even know what to do…” Sans finally admitted sighing where he sat next to Frisk.  “You need something but I don't know what…”

“I HAVE A FEELING I KNOW,” Sans looked up to see papyrus at the foot of the stairs, looking more than a little haggard himself.  “I'M SORRY HUMAN KID,  THAT I COULD NOT CAPTURE YOUR BROTHER FOR A MORE… PEACEFUL RESOLUTION.”

Papyrus closed the door to the stairs behind him as he strode into the room before kneeling next to the mattress that served as Sans bed.  There was a grave look in his eyes and a sour twist to his smile, which was enough to give Sans anxiety since he hadn't seen that look since his brother had decided to become ‘strong enough to hold his own.’ 

“HUMAN KID,  FRISK… I DO NOT KNOW WHAT DESPAIR I WOULD FEEL TO LOSE MY BROTHER THOUGH IT IS A CONSTANT FEAR THAT EATS AT ME. I HAVE SWORN THAT ANYONE WHO TAKES SANS FROM ME WILL SUFFER BEFORE I GRANT MERCY, BUT… I DON'T THINK I WOULD LAST LONG ENOUGH TO ACTUALLY FOLLOW THROUGH ON IT.  I DO NOT THINK I COULD POSSIBLY COMPREHEND… WHAT YOU ARE FEELING NOW, BUT… YOU HAVE US HERE FOR YOU. EVERYONE IN TOWN IS HERE FOR YOU,” Papyrus’ jaw clacked as he paused, and Sans held his breath, trying to be supportive without intruding. “FRISK… WHAT I AM TRYING TO SAY… IS THAT WE BELIEVE IN YOU, AND WHATEVER YOU CHOOSE TO DO.. WE WILL TRY TO HELP…”

It seemed like forever before Papyrus sighed, looking down with such a heartbroken expression that Sans felt tears well up in his own eyes. Papyrus didn’t say anything else, rising up and heading to the door with a hangdog demeanor though he straightened before he opened the door, and Sans could see him struggling to reclaim the dignity and authority that armored his heart before he headed up the stairs. 

When he heard the trap door click closed, something inside of him snapped, and he pulled away from Frisk for the first time in three days. 

“Kid… Frisk… that’s cold. Don’t leave us hanging that way…” Sans tried to control the tremor in his voice, the strain in his chest and magic feeling like it was going to burst out and make him explode any moment now. 

His breath caught as Frisk moved, twisting as ne fell over on nir side, turning away from him and facing the wall with unblinking eyes. 

Soulmate or not, Sans felt anger, nearly blinding rage at the implied rejection and suddenly he was standing on the other side of the room, trembling as he watched the shallow breaths Frisk was taking. Nir soul was there, but Sans was getting the oddest impression that Frisk was the same as any one of the soulless husks that came to kill his people. 

“There’s nothing I can do for you,” he admitted, bitterness lacing his voice. “I’m going to Grilbys… you know where to find me.” 

He had a fresh bottle of hot sauce and a hankering for one of the friendly bottles of whisky that Grilby tended to keep on hand.

* * *

Dimly, somewhere far away, Frisk heard Sans leave, nir right wrist burning where his name was etched into nir skin. For so long ne had wanted to find nir soulmates, had dreamed of going to far off safe lands where ne wouldn’t be considered wrong and bad for simply being born the way ne was, or for feeling wrong when being called a girl, or even a boy for that matter. 

Nir own brother had called nir a freak for those feelings. 

“Oh shove off. You know it wasn't really him.”

Frisk jumped,  startled out of nir apathy by the unknown voice and looked around. 

“Not out there idiot. The void.” 

“I don't want to go back…” Frisk whispered,  nir voice cracking with fear.  Going back and seeing Joren again…

“By the stars, fucking noob. You don't have to LOAD to visit the void though your friend is probably going to get some weird vibes when you SAVE.”

“Load? Save?” 

“Oh my gods just get in here!”

There was a sharp tug though Frisk couldn't identify from where until ne focused on following it at a gentle insistence from the other.  

Then Frisk was back at the place that was between dying and coming back, and someone was there with nir. 

“Hello Frisk.”

The stranger was the same size as Frisk, with reddish brown hair in a similar style to the one Frisk wore. The stranger stood in the void looking at Frisk with scarlet eyes, and a wide smile,  set in features lighter in tone than Frisk's skin with rosy cheeks.  

“Who are you?” Frisk asked confused and a little scared,  which the stranger called nir out on. 

“Please if I wanted to hurt you I would have left you in that self destructive funk you were in,” ne said with a grin. “I'm you, silly.” 

“What?”

“I'm you.  Or you're me.  It gets confusing,  what do you know about reincarnation?”

“Other than it's a heathen term the acolytes say only outsiders believe in?” Frisk asked before shrugging. 

“Since when? It was part of the mainstream dogma when I was alive. Seriously the nuns wouldn't shut up about it. Geeze,  ok so reincarnation is when someone dies their soul comes back again and is reborn,  anywhere between eighty eight years after death and seven hundred and seventy seven years after death.  At least that's the way the priests used to explain it,” the other shrugged before grinning widely. “And what do you know, it looks like they were onto something, though they might have gotten the time frame wrong.  That or the fact that my,  or our, soul stayed with Azzie so long may have slowed the process down.”

“Azzie? Asriel? You're Chara, aren't you?”

“Doing ding ding,  see, I knew you weren't a stupid as you're acting.”

“Thanks… I think,” Frisk rolled nir eyes before getting serious.  “So what do you want and what does reincarnation have to do with it?”

“I want to tell you to stop being stupid and obviously you're my reincarnation,” Chara grinned. “Pretty simple, right?”

“Not at all,” Frisk rolled nir eyes before frowning. “You said something else though.  ‘It wasn't really him.’ What did you mean by that?”

“Duh. Without a soul it wasn't Joren talking.  You know what a soul is, right? It's the culmination of who someone is,  their hopes and dreams. It's compassion and kindness and the capacity for greatness. When the mages take that away all that's left is mechanical and cold, with the only motivation being self interest.”

“Why would Joren say that though,” Frisk was near tears again and looked down, futilely trying not to let it show.

“Because the mages wanted him to,” Chara sighed, moving further away from Frisk. “Look I don't know how they do it just that they do.  A body without a soul can be programmed, I guess.  What they say or do after that is what the mages make them say and do. Needless to say it wasn't Joren.”

“But he said the mages raided our home because of me and they have everyone and are going to keep taking their souls,” Frisk knew ne was starting to blubber but Chara didn't stop nir this time. 

“Probably not everyone, but that might be true. Even in my time they preferred to hurt with the truth if at all possible and they were way more creative with lies,” Chara shrugged. “Either way there's only one thing to do for it,  one way to make everything better.”

“What could possibly make it better?” Frisk demanded with a sob. 

Chara grinned and it wasn't a comforting look on nir.  

* * *

Sans shuddered, feeling the world hiccup around him before he slammed back another hot sauce laced whisky.  Three more identical shots sat in front of him as he waited for the burn from the latest one to hit. 

He had been here for all of an hour now, and this was only his fourth drink but it was still enough to fuzz the pain a bit. Just as he was getting the hang of the soulmates thing, or at least getting a handle on it, something like this had to go and happen.  

The world hiccuped again and Sans tossed down the next shot. He had no idea at this point whether it really was the world around him or if he was just far enough out of it for it to be something from him he was feeling. All he knew was that he had made a drinking game out of it, every time the world did it’s thing, he was going to take another shot. 

“Sans?” The soft voice behind him didn’t quite reach through his apathy, but he paused in reaching for the next shot anyways. “Sans, I’m sorry, I’ve been a brat…” warm arms in one of his own jackets wrapped around his waist where he sat at the barstool, Frisk leaning against his back. 

“Bit more than bratty, kid, to keep me and Paps hanging that way,” he sighed, though he knew deep in his soul that he would forgive nir, eventually. 

“I’m sorry. I… I know it’s not an excuse but I was hurting, and it took someone basically slapping some sense into me to get over it,” Frisk explained, and Sans turned around in disbelief as Frisk stepped back. 

“Who made it down to slap sense into you? I’ll shred them…” Sans started, but Frisk cut him off with another hug. 

“Just myself Sans, it’s okay.” 

“Yea… alright kid… waita’minute… How the hell did you get up?” 

“I may have loaded a few times trying to figure out how to get past the traps,” Frisk said with a shrug, and Sans shook his head, before glancing back at the three laced shots on the counter.

“That would explain why I’m not getting any drunker despite my efforts,” Sans said, shaking his head. “Whelp… since I already payed for these ones… You want one?”

“Sans, no. I’m twelve, that is way too young to be drinking. I need to find Papyrus so I can apologize to him too..” Frisk said, making Sans pause and he sighed. 

“Kid, just head to the end of town, he’ll know your up and about. He’s had a detection trap up all week to catch you before you leave Snowdin.” 

“A.. what? How does something like that even… no, nevermind. I’m going to go see him now.” 

Frisk let go and almost made it to the door before Sans called out. 

“Frisk… good luck.” 

“Thank you, Sans.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sooo.... yea that happened. Seriously I never expected to write Chara, but everyone else was too nice in trying to shake Frisk out of it. Also, confirmation that yes, Frisk is the reincarnation of Chara! 
> 
> Please leave a review? even if you hated it? Let me know why and maybe I can work around it in future chapters?


	21. Echoless

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Overflowing with Determination! The final battle with Papyrus!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have no life. My seasonal job is over, I'm looking for another one, and in the meantime, Look! It's a thing...

Papyrus was waiting for nir in the usual spot and Frisk smiled despite nemself.  I looked like Sans had been right about whatever Papyrus was doing to stay one step ahead of nir.

“HUMAN KID, YOU MUST KNOW THAT DESPITE EVENTS I CANNOT LET YOU PASS.  IT IS NOT SAFE,” Papyrus stated and Frisk shook nir head.  

“Thank you, Papyrus,  for caring and trying to help me even though I was being a brat…”

“YOU WERE IN PAIN.  BRATTYNESS IS TO BE EXPECTED,” Papyrus cut nir off.  “LET US GO HOME NOW, HUMAN KID AND WE WILL PUT THIS BEHIND US.”

“I can't,” Frisk could read the surprise on his skeletal features, and smiled again despite a lump of nerves in nir belly.  “It's not driving me like it was, but if I stay another soulless human will show up,  someone else who was part of my family.  I have to find a way to stop it,  too keep anyone else from…” ne trailed off not sure how to articulate what ne needed.  

“HUMAN KID EVEN IF I SIMPLY LET YOU THROUGH THERE ARE OTHER DANGERS AND YOU WOULD NEVER SURVIVE TO REACH THE SURFACE. GIVE UP AND COME HOME.”

“No, I won't give up when there is a possibility  of saving anyone,” determination welled up in nir and Frisk set nir chin,  ready to do whatever it took to make it through.

“VERY WELL, WE SHALL DO THIS THE HARD WAY THEN,” Papyrus stated, and Frisk nodded.

“Papyrus, please don’t hold back,” it was probably an odd request and the tall skeleton looked startled for a moment before nodding.  

“IF THAT IS YOUR DESIRE,  BUT BE AWARE YOU MAY NOT SURVIVE.  IF I GO ALL OUT THE ODDS OF YOU SURVIVING ARE MOST CERTAINLY ZERO,” Papyrus actually looked worried as he spoke but Frisk nodded.

“But if you don't and i win you'll member be satisfied that I'm as prepared as possible right?” Frisk couldn't help but grin,  and there was a new determination driving nir.  If Papyrus won and ne had to take time to recover on between matches more and more of nir family would be… well ne had new  determination in spades after taking to Chara.  

“VERY WELL HUMAN KID,  DO NOT DAY I DID NOT WARN YOU,” Papyrus didn't waste any time, and the battle started in earnest.

It wasn’t like fighting him before, and even though it was obvious he didn’t want to hurt nir, Frisk was having a very hard time dodging and fleeing his attacks. Through it all, the option was there to run, to retreat to Snowdin, to hide until yet another soulless husk of nir family came through leaving a terrifying trail of dust.

So Frisk dodged, and while ne didn’t know if Papyrus was using his strongest attacks, ne did know there were a lot more of them than when they trained. Frisk dodged, and when he used special attacks, ne took the hit, grinning as ne found an opportunity in the middle of battle to scarf down half a bicicle.

Papyrus seemed amused by nir audacity at least when it came to that, and Frisk kept the other half at ready, though it seemed ne was tiring out the tall, menacing skeleton.

Frisk was breathing hard, covered in sweat by the time Papyrus stopped, the skeleton breathing hard himself as he fell to one knee, sending one last attack at Frisk that ne dodged once more.

And with that, the battle was over, color seeping back into the world as Papyrus slumped in defeat.

“YOU ARE DETERMINED TO GO FORWARD,” he stated, a sadness in his voice even as Frisk approached him carefully.

“I have to. The Mages have my family, and I won’t let them hurt anyone else,” Frisk kept nir voice calm and quiet, but Papyrus flinched anyways.

“WHAT OF MY BROTHER? IF YOU MOVE ON FROM HERE, OUT OF SNOWDIN, I KNOW HE WILL FOLLOW YOU, AND IF YOU LEAVE SNOWDIN, I WILL HAVE NO CHOICE BUT TO REPORT YOUR EXISTENCE TO THE KING,” Papyrus stated, and Frisk sighed.

“It’s fine, Papyrus. I promise, everything will be okay,” Frisk said, smiling as brightly as ne could muster, the edges of fear making nir voice waver though Determination kept nir strong.

“The Sun and the Stars, right kid?” Sans asked from behind nir, and Frisk nodded.

“GO THEN,” Papyrus stated, and Frisk nodded, darting forward to give the tall skeleton a hug.

“Thank you for training me Papyrus,” Ne stated, before moving on, leaving the tall skeleton behind in the snow.

* * *

Frisk wasn’t sure what ne was expecting, but waterfall was vastly different than ne had thought it would be. The name had conjured thoughts of pristine waterfalls of the kind Frisk had seen in travel books and stories. To be fair, Frisk really shouldn't have expected the sun-lit waterfalls surrounded by lush vegetation, but the dank and dark cave was a lot more depressing than Frisk had envisioned.

“Wow this place is… something else,” Sans stated, a wrinkle to his expressive features that Frisk took to mean he would be wrinkling his nose if he had one.

“Y… yea..” Almost immediately the fouled stench had hit them, and the water was murky and covered in scum. Frisk was keeping an eye out for traps, but there didn’t seem to be any,although Sans insisted quietly on taking the lead.

Un-nerved by the silence, Frisk let him. Aside from the steady drip of water, there was really nothing making any kind of noise. The occasional breeze blew cold across the sluggish river, but was oddly silent, and Frisk only realized after they had been walking for several minutes that ne expected to hear that breeze whistling through the long caverns.

Frisk had a very bad feeling about it, and was reluctant to speak at more than a whisper. There seemed to be no one around, and Frisk pressed closer to Sans. He was walking carefully, and Frisk started to look up to find out why before his skeletal fingers pushed nir head back down.

“Don’t kid… trust me just… don’t,” his voice was barely above a whisper, but in the dank silence it sounded almost like a shout. Frisk trusted him though, and kept nir head down, not looking around despite the morbid curiosity gripping at nir.

The stagnant river soon diverged as they passed into another room, phosphorescent moss growing in patches along the wall and giving everything a soft illumination. Sans took his hand away from Frisk’s head, and ne took that as an invitation to look up and around. It seemed like they were in a small alcove along a deep chasm. Glancing over the edge revealed an opening in the wall where water gushed out, though this stream probably didn’t have the same source as the river because it flowed cold and clear.

Against one wall was a small, dilapidated stand, looking like something that people would sell magazines out of, but empty and falling apart. Tucked back into the corner, what Frisk first took for a lump of rock turned out to be a monster with wide dark eyes, cradling something and whispering into it though ne couldn’t make out any words.

Sans watched the monster for a moment, but it didn’t look up, and it made no move to attack or defend, or anything really.

“Let’s go kid,” the whisper jolted the monster out of it’s rocking motion, and the wide eyes looked up, black and faceted like a beetle's as it darted forward.

“D.. d… don’t… no…. echoes…” it said, lunging at where Sans had been a heartbeat before. Sans hadn’t moved, but he was several feet away from where the unknown monster collapsed, curling in on itself, murmuring again, and Frisk found nemself shocked that it had a fish's tail instead of legs and feet.

“E… excuse me, Frisk said quietly, prepared to dodge if the monster lunged again. “What do you mean, no echos?”

“Gone… all gone, t… they c… came and… burned away… no echoes… no hope… no life… their dust mingles in the river… with bones of regret… and hate…” monster started to laugh, and Frisk shuddered at the disjointed feeling ne got looking at the creature, pathetic and sad.

“Come on kid… we should get going,” Sans stated again, grabbing Frisk’s arm and tugging at nir toward the other side of the alcove where the glowing moss and a few sparkling stones denoted the hallway out.

They moved on, leaving the monster and it’s murmurs behind, and Frisk burried nir face in Sans’s jacket for a moment, trying to regain nir composure.

“Chin up kid… It shouldn’t take that long to get through Waterfall and we’ll move on to Hotland... Just be strong, Frisk,”

“I will… but… how… why were they like that?”

“I don’t know, but I figure it’s better not to ask. We’re not only moving away from Snowdin, but Papyrus’ friend lives here and the Tems have… a lot of influence here. Be on the lookout.”

Frisk looked around, seeing a wide, swiftly running segment of river ahead of them, with large chunks of rock tumbling down and flowing everywhere but in the middle of the river.

“What is a Tem?” Ne asked, watching the rocks and noticing a pattern in how they fell even as Sans stood there, looking at the water. He sighed before answering nir question.

“Tems is the plural for a group of Temmie. No one’s sure whether they’ve got a hive mind or what, but what one knows all the others do too, nigh simultaneously as far as anyone can tell. I had some dealings with them, a long time ago. I’ve only been to Waterfall once before, when Paps and I moved to Snowdin,” the skeleton sighed again, and Frisk looked up at him, not hiding nir curiosity. “They’re vicious and want to know everything, they usually broker in information, though they don't turn down money or goods if the opportunity presents itself.”

“So… like a gang, like in the stories?” Frisk asked, frowning and looking back at the river.

“Yea, something like that, I guess. How are we going to get across?” He asked, changing the subject, and Frisk smiled.

“There’s something  hidden in the waterfall and I want to take a look. Getting across shouldn’t be hard, the rocks are falling in a pattern.. I’ve gotten very good at patterns,” remembering a certain room near the beginning of the ruins, Frisk shuddered dramatically.

“Hidden in the waterfall?” Sans asked, and Frisk pointed to the middle of the river, where nothing was coming down. “Huh…”

“I’m going to check it out. Do you think you can make it across?”

“Oh sure, no problem. See you soon kid.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Honestly I'm not as happy with it as I could be, but this whole story is dragging on, and I'm going to try to tighten it up some... meaning starting next chapter I'm not going to be describing every area anymore unless people really want me to...?
> 
> Please leave a review! They really do motivate me! Alternatively, hook up with me on Skype and tell me what you think! https://join.skype.com/zoeROyAU23TO
> 
> Seriously, I love it when people tell me to stop goofing off and write...

**Author's Note:**

> All things will eventually be explained, you have my oath as an Evil Author. 
> 
> Please let me know what you think of it so far. Seriously, please. I Love Comments.


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